CAPE TOWN - An off-duty sergeant, stationed at Lentegeur SAPS Visible Policing, has become the latest officer to be shot dead in the country.
The 35-year-old was killed during an alleged hijacking, in Eersterivier, on Thursday. He was shot in his neck and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died due to his injuries.
Police say the crime scene still needs to be established and reconstructed, and Hawks have been tasked with investigating the attack.
It came on the same day the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) lamented the alarming rise in the killings of officers, saying the union found it infuriating the “snail’s pace level” at which recurring police killings were being undermined, if not ignored.
This was after at least six deaths within the last 10 days, bringing the total number of killings to 38, within the last eight months, said the union.
On August 21, Constable Madikitsi Mota Malinga, a female officer in the Free State, was strangled to death.
Two days later, Sergeant Pumlani Dastile, attached to the Eastern Cape Provincial Organised Crime Unit, was also killed while on duty around Zwelitsha, where he was pursuing information on a robbery.
Three days later, Sergeants Sharon Mogale and Mapule Petje, of the Tembisa Police Station, were attacked and disarmed by four suspects, while inside a retail shop in Tembisa, resulting in the killing of Mogale.
This was followed by another, on August 27, where a KwaZulu-Natal officer was killed while on the way to fetch a colleague.
Two members of the Road Traffic Infringement (RTI) Mtubatuba were killed when they came under fire, with their service vehicle riddled with over 15 rounds of bullets, possibly from an AK47 or R5 rifle, on Monday.
Their firearms were stolen.
The attacks follow, after two officers were burned to death in North West, including an attack at a police station in the Northern Cape.
Popcru president Zizamele Cebekhulu said: “While the threat against our police officers has been on an increase, with some losing their lives to criminal elements, we should not be deterred by these cowardly acts. We need to remind ourselves that when out there enforcing law and order, the law is on our side to respond decisively when confronted by criminals. Our police officers should not die with their firearms holstered. However, it has been far too long that the issues of police safety have been put by the wayside, and we cannot afford to stand idle,” said Cebekhulu.
Anyone with information about the Eersterivier attack can anonymously contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
Cape Times