Johannesburg - South African Police Service (SAPS) officers are searching for the killer or killers of a senior police officer in Limpopo and a group of assailants who attacked a guest farm in the Eastern Cape in two separate incidents this weekend.
The police in Dennilton have launched a manhunt after the Groblersdal police station commander Colonel Lebyane Jeffrey Seroka, 57, was shot dead by unknown assailant/s in front of his house at Mmaganagobuswa village in the early hours of Saturday morning, Limpopo SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said in a statement.
Preliminary police investigations indicated that the murdered officer woke up early in the morning and prepared to go to a funeral. "At about 4.30am, he went out of the house and as he was about to leave, he was then shot dead in front of his gate."
The assailant/s thereafter took the officer’s white Toyota Hilux bakkie and fled from the scene. The vehicle was later found abandoned along the Dennilton-Maklerekeng road. The motive for the killing was unknown at this stage but the police investigations were continuing.
"A team of investigators has already been assembled to hunt down the killer/s," Mojapelo said.
In an unrelated incident in the Eastern Cape, two people were wounded when a number of men attacked a group of people on a guest farm near Addo, Eastern Cape SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Majola Nkohli said in a statement.
The SAPS in the Sarah Baartman district had launched a manhunt for armed suspects following a "house robbery that occurred on a farmhouse bed and breakfast outside Addo" on Friday night, Nkohli said.
It was alleged that at about 8.35pm, five guests were sitting in the braai area of the bed and breakfast situated a few kilometres outside Addo.
"It is further said that one of the guests noticed that there was a group of about five suspects wearing balaclavas who were crawling on the ground towards them and he raised an alarm.
"One of the suspects started shooting and one of the bullets struck the victim in the upper body. During the mayhem, a second victim sustained a minor injury after one of the bullets grazed his thigh."
The suspects managed to steal a laptop, a wallet, a handbag, and a cellphone before fleeing the scene on foot. Cases of attempted murder and house robbery were being investigated, Nkholi said.
Police urged anyone with any information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects to contact the Addo detectives serious and violent crimes standby number 082-319-9223. Information may also be provided anonymously via Crime Stop 086-00-10111.
African News Agency (ANA)