Most recent robberies in Gauteng were carried out by foreigners, South African police union president Mpho Kwinika said on Thursday.
He was speaking at a memorial service for four slain police offices held at the Littlefalls Christian centre in Roodepoort.
”The first invasions in Gauteng took place in 2003 on a highway in Germiston. A gang of 14 men tried to rob a cash van. They were arrested and eight of them were foreigners.”
Kwinika said his investigations have revealed that there was a syndicate that has targeted cash vans and casinos.
He said a number of casinos were robbed in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo last year and most of the suspects were Zimbabweans.
”Most of them have not been arrested,” Kwinika later told the South African Press Associations.
He said in the latest robberies, including the Johannesburg International airport heist, foreigners were involved.
He urged the public to assist police in fighting crime and to stop criticising them.
”Police have done well in combating crime from the recent protests, but no one has applauded them,” Kwinika said.
The four slain police officers have been named 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.
Eleven people have appeared in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on initial charges related to the robbery and the deaths.
The bloody clash erupted when police, probing a robbery at the Pick ‘n Pay in Honeydew on Sunday morning, were led to the house where the gang was allegedly to rendezvous by a person arrested on the scene.
Nine people believed to be associated with the robbers were dead after a bloody shootout at the house in Mordaunt Street.
‘Taking the war to the criminals’
Meanwhile, Sunday’s shootout is an indication that police are ”taking the war to the criminals”, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
He was reacting to questions that government is not giving enough of an assurance that these types of violent crimes are being handled forcefully.
This followed after the Director General in the Presidency, Frank Chikane, earlier said that Cabinet had noted the shooting during its meeting on Wednesday.
”Government would like to re-affirm its appreciation of the role of the South African Police Service in fighting crime and to emphasise the message that crime should not and does not pay,” Chikane said.
He also expressed Cabinet’s empathy and condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the four police officers killed in the shooting.
Maseko said the incident showed police are serious about tackling crime.
”The cops did not say there was a robbery in Honeydew and that was that, they followed through, they took the fight to the criminals,” he said.
”What led to the shooting in Jeppestown was essentially the police taking the war to the criminals,” Maseko said.
”The cops shot back, they did not say: ‘There are 24 criminals we are walking away’. We need to see that something positive is happening; the cops are not getting scared of the criminals.”
He repeated a call by Cabinet that the public should assist the police.
”These criminals were gathered in a house in Jeppestown, 24 of them, surely neighbours should have seen lots of people gathering and made a call to the police,” he said.
”We are not going to fool the public and say we have solved the crime problem. It’s still a long challenge, but slowly and surely getting on top of it,” he added. — Sapa