Cape Town - Police came under attack in Nyanga at the weekend after assisting a man who had just been injured in a shooting.
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said members of Lockdown II forces responded to a shooting incident involving a man on the corner of Borcherds Quarry and Klipfontein Roads on Saturday evening.
“As they were assisting the injured victim, shots were fired from the shacks nearby. The police members went in the direction of the shots and came under fire from unknown suspects. The police fired back,” Potelwa said.
A 41-year-old suspect was hit and killed and a 31-year-old man arrested. Two unlicensed firearms with ammunition were seized.
“While on the scene police questioned another man wearing a blood-stained shirt. He pointed the police with a firearm and later ran into a nearby shack. The 35-year-old was arrested. It was later discovered the firearm was a toy gun. He faces charges of pointing the police with a firearm,” Potelwa added.
Meanwhile another Lockdown II contingent on patrol on Japhta K Masemola Road in Site C, Khayelitsha spotted four suspects cutting cables at a fire station on Saturday afternoon.
“They gave chase but the suspects managed to evade arrest by disappearing into the shacks . Members recovered a roll of cable that was booked in,” Potelwa said.
In Paarl, SAPS Crime Prevention Unit and the Agter Paarl Farm Watch arrested a suspect following a spate of house robberies in the Winelands and surrounding rural areas.
The suspect was arrested in possession of stolen items linked to a house robbery on a farm in the Tulbagh area on Thursday.
Spokesperson FC Van Wyk said: “The vehicle was subsequently searched and balaclavas, gloves, and a baby browning firearm with a magazine and four rounds were found in the vehicle amongst numerous electronic items. It was discovered that the electronic items found in the vehicle belonged to a farm owner in the Tulbagh area that was robbed earlier in the evening by five unknown males. The items were positively identified by the owner and the driver of the vehicle, a 32-year-old from Kuilsrivier was subsequently arrested for the possession of an illegal firearm, ammunition, stolen property, and housebreaking implements.”
Community leader Lizzie Jooster said: “We are suffering and the sad thing is that the people who commit these robberies are not people from Tulbagh but people who come here with vehicles to load whatever it is they steal. We hope the arrest will send a message to others.”
Cape Times