Pretoria – Police have appealed to community members to “hand over” three unidentified assailants who hijacked a SAPS commander who was driving a marked police vehicle, and robbed him of his belongings.
The police van was later abandoned, according to national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe.
“The national commissioner of the SAPS, General Fannie Masemola has condemned an incident where an operational commander was hijacked during the time when he was voluntarily taking two victims home after opening cases at the Temba Police Station,” Mathe said.
She said the assailants drove away with the police officer, and robbed him.
“After dropping off the second victim, the commander was accosted by three males who drove with him to Winterveld (north of Pretoria) where they also abandoned the vehicle,” Mathe said.
“Police have launched a manhunt for the three suspects and we are calling on members of the public to work together with members of the SAPS to prevent and combat criminality.
“The member was robbed of his belongings.”
Mathe said the police van was recovered “and police are calling on the community to hand over those responsible for this heinous crime”.
In August, two police officers were robbed of their service firearms and locked in the back of their bakkie in Wells Estate, Gqeberha.
Eastern Cape police said the officers were attending to a murder scene when they were robbed, allegedly by three armed men.
In September, armed assailants attacked police officers at Grootvlei police station in Mpumalanga and forcefully took three 9mm pistols, one R5 rifle and one shotgun as well as about 180 bullets.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said the assailants took one pistol from a police officer, and the other firearms were seized from the safe of the police station.
IOL