Pretoria - Newly appointed Tshwane district police commissioner major-general Hilda Mohajane led operation Okae Molao in the Winterveld and Rietgat areas to address a spike in serious crimes.
This was a multi-disciplinary operation that included the police, the Department of Community Safety, Tracker and Gautrain and Tshwane traffic officers.
Mohajane said these communities have become notorious for serious crimes like rape, domestic violence, robberies and hijacking; prompting the police to take serious action to effect arrests.
He said the operation actually started on Wednesday night with her detectives in Tshwane arresting a whopping total of 289 suspects as part of executing the anti-crime campaign mandated by Premier David Makhura.
She said just last week, the police arrested a Rietgat man who worked with a traditional healer to murder his girlfriend and dump her body with her limbs removed.
"This lady went missing on Wednesday and since that day the police did not sleep until they found her. Unfortunately they found her on Saturday dead and her limbs cut off. The boyfriend and the Sangoma (traditional healer) will be appearing in court again on October 20," she said.
Mohajane said gender-based violence continued to be a challenge to society and a crime highly prioritised by policing forces who want to root it out of the communities to bring safety and peace to every woman, child and every home.
"In fact, from the 289 suspects arrested by our detectives on Wednesday night, 33 of those people arrested were suspects of gender-based violence.
"We are serious about ending gender-based violence and we are creating awareness and making sure that we don't stop until we arrest you."
Questions about her stance on police officers who are being arrested for corruption across Tshwane and the country, she said community members should not hesitate to report corrupt officers because they'll get no mercy from her leadership.
"There is a corruptor and a corruptee and therefore we appeal to our communities not to corrupt our police officers. However, we will leave no stone unturned for police officers who have chosen to be involved in corruption.
"We are arresting them and we are also making them aware when we have parades and we talk to our members about corruption," she added.
The police held several roadblocks and searched cars, drivers, passengers and also checked vehicle registrations to monitor and punish any criminal activity relating to licence discs and registration numbers.
Pretoria News