Pretoria - The Gauteng MEC for Community Safety says police officers are being provoked by criminals who are targeting and killing them.
On Monday, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane visited the family of Constable Ronald Baloyi, one of two police officers who were killed at the weekend.
“These criminals are now provoking police officers, who are innocent and have done nothing wrong.
“Police officers are working hard and have been trained not only to protect their communities, but themselves as well,” Nkosi-Malobane said.
Baloyi, who was stationed at Laudium police station, was gunned down in Atteridgeville on Friday.
He was running errands in preparation for his wife’s surprise baby shower. She is seven months’ pregnant with twins.
Two suspects, a man and a woman, have been arrested in connection with this murder while a third suspect is still at large.
In a separate incident, gunmen opened fire on two police officers in Hillbrow. One of them was killed, the other wounded.
“If Baloyi was an unruly police officer he would have shot them first, but he didn’t and that is what hurts because he was a good officer and a family man,” she said.
Nkosi-Malobane said they were grateful to communities who were helping them weed out criminals involved in police killings as they had made arrests for the recent killings. “All the suspects in the murder cases (including Hillbrow) have been arrested and are behind bars. For this case police were able to trace the male suspect through his girlfriend’s cellphone. We are still investigating the whereabouts of the third suspect who has the gun,” she said.
Inside the one room that the couple was renting in Saulsville, a visibly distressed Patricia Baloyi sat with her 8-year-old daughter, Lucia.
Nkosi-Malobane told her that the police were working tirelessly to bring everyone involved in the murder of her husband to justice.
The brother of the slain officer, Aubrey Baloyi, said his family had been shattered by the murder, but were finding solace in the fact that police had reacted quickly and had made arrests. “We are hurt, because Ronald has a family and has two children on the way. The support that has been shown to us has also helped us because it shows that we have not been abandoned by the government,” he said.
Nkosi-Malobane said the Baloyi children would be assisted with their education through the SAPS education trust, while Patricia would be given support in the form of counselling by social workers.
Pretoria News