Cape Town – The investigation into the attack on six of the police’s Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) members who were shot and injured while they were tracing suspects in Samora Machel in June last year has hit a brick wall.
Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said this week there were no new developments in the case.
“The case is still under investigation,” Traut said.
The members were ambushed from a shack on June 12 while searching for a murder suspect.
Later the same day, after launching a manhunt for the suspect, a 26-year-old man was arrested at Paarl Hospital in connection with the shooting.
Police also launched an investigation into serious allegations that senior police officers failed to follow due process to order the operation.
The Cape Times reliably understood that a Colonel Ngubane, Colonel Clark and Brigadier Khumalo, whom the AGU commander Major-General André Lincoln requested be removed from the unit following a break in trust, were laterally moved to the command structure of the AGU by former Western Cape SAPS commissioner Khombinkosi Jula without consulting Lincoln first.
At the time, police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said the
six had apprehended a suspect
allegedly linked to murders in
Samora Machel.
“The members, who were on a tracing operation in Sweet Home Farm informal settlement, had just apprehended one suspect allegedly linked to recent murders in Samora Machel.
“As the members were searching for another suspect also sought for serious crime, shots came from one of the shacks,” Potelwa had said.
During the shooting two AGU members suffered serious injury and four others were injured.
“The area is difficult to access with a terrain that is poorly lit and shacks erected close to each other.
“Unfortunately, the area is also a hideout for dangerous criminals,” Potelwa said.
At the time of the incident, Potelwa said the area was volatile, as a “spate of murders took place in the area”.
Anyone with information can anonymously contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or SMS Crime Line
on 32211.