STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Saturday 6.00pm
SOUTH Africa’s elite crime fighting unit, the Scorpions, is to head investigations into Friday night’s bomb attack outside a Greenpoint restaurant on Friday night which left seven policemen injured, two of them seriously.
Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete made this announcement after visiting the scene of the attack on Saturday, Christmas morning, with Justice Minister Penuell Maduna and the National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.
He also pledged more police to fighting terror in the Western Cape.
The seven policemen went to investigate a bomb threat outside Manos restaurant. When they got out of their vehicles a bomb was detonated in a plastic dustbin attached to a lampost at close range, Tshwete said.
“It is quite obvious the target was the police officers themselves.”
A man in a bakkie was seen speeding off after the explosion.
The two seriously injured police officers were women, one of whom had to have her leg amputated.
Tshwete declined to speculate on what the motive for the attack could be, or give details about how the investigation was progressing.
He said the attackers clearly had a political motive.
“It is an organised terror campaign,” he said, but would not elaborate on who he thought was behind it.
Ngcuka said it was too early to tell if the attack was linked to the bombing of the St Elmos pizzeria in Camps Bay or the Blah Bar in Greenpoint.
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