South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has extended its heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the four members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) who died in a confrontation with armed criminals in Jeppestown on Sunday.
In a statement released by ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama, the organisation said the deaths of these dedicated police members in the line of duty ”is a source of great pain to all South Africans”.
Ngonyama said: ”That police members managed to apprehend an accomplice of these dangerous criminals with the help of members of the public is an affirmation that our people are committed to working with the police to uproot the demon of crime.”
Four police officers died in a hail of bullets during a stand-off with robbers at a Jeppestown house on Sunday. Eight robbers died in the shootout.
The violence began when a gang robbed a supermarket in Honeydew. Police arrested one of the robbers who led them to the Jeppestown house where the gang had planned to meet after their heist, according to local press reports. It was there that the shootout occurred.
The ANC, meanwhile, said it called on all South Africans to honour the memory of these four police members by recommitting themselves to the struggle against crime ”by actively taking part in community policing forums, working as police reservists, providing information to the police on criminal activities and exposing those members of the SAPS that collaborate with criminals”.
”South Africans need to send a clear message to armed criminals that they stand alone. All peace-loving South Africans need to unite and work with the police and other security services to ensure that such criminals are apprehended and face the full might of the law.
”Like other murderers, criminals who attack police officers should face the most stringent of sentences. Killing a police officer is a direct assault on the people of this country.”
Firearms and cash found
Meanwhile, cash has been found in the Jeppestown house where the shootout occurred, police Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said on Monday.
She would not reveal the amount, but it was believed to be tens of thousands of rands taken in an armed robbery at a Pick ‘n Pay in Honeydew on Sunday.
The robber arrested who led police to his gang’s rendezvous in Jeppestown will in all likelihood appear in court on Wednesday, along with the 11 surviving gang members who handed themselves over to the police, said Martins-Engelbrecht.
Investigators will decide on Tuesday whether they will appear in the Johannesburg or Roodepoort magistrate’s courts.
They were busy establishing and confirming the nationalities of the people in custody, but did not want to make this information public at this stage, she said.
While detectives were profiling the dead robbers to establish whether they were implicated in other crimes, Martins-Engelbrecht said the police had reason to believe they were ”responsible for several well-orchestrated crimes”.
She said 13 firearms found at the house would undergo forensic and ballistic tests to determine whether they were linked to other crimes.
The four police killed in the clash were identified on Monday as Inspectors Frederick ”Frikkie” van Heerden (32) and Nzama Victor Mathye (49), both of the West Rand Dog Unit, Sergeant Gert Schoeman (30) of the West Rand Emergency Response Service and Constable Peter Francois Seaward (31) of the Johannesburg Dog Unit.
Van Heerden’s wife Leonie, also a police officer, was injured.
The deaths brought to 19 the number of police murdered in Gauteng since the start of the year, said Martins-Engelbrecht.
”All members on the scene, including the four who paid with their lives and the two who were injured, displayed the utmost courage and dedication to their duties. They were willing to forsake their own lives to protect the community,” Captain Dennis Adriao said in a tribute from the office of National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. — I-Net Bridge and Sapa