Africa-Press – South-Africa. Arrest them, standing or lying on the ground.
This was the order Police Minister Bheki Cele gave to Gauteng police after four gunmen killed six people in Finetown in the south of Johannesburg on Saturday.
The armed men robbed street vendors in Finetown and made off with their stock. Some of the victims retaliated by pelting the suspects’ car with stones. According to eyewitnesses, the robbers then walked back to the vendors and opened fire.
Addressing residents of Finetown, Cele promised the crowd that the police were working hard to arrest the murderers.
Initial reports stated that seven people had been killed but police said six people had died.
“We are coming back here unannounced. We are not going to allow gallivanting people to kill innocent residents. Some of you know the culprits. Some are defending the suspects. We need to figure out what type of people rob and shoot people trying to earn a living,” Cele said.
He reiterated his promise to deploy the Tactical Response Team (TRT) in the area.
“They (TRT) are going to clean you and this place until it is right (sic). You are not going to call me to fetch Amaberethe from here. I can’t say when and how many will be deployed here. They will be allowed to do their work. They will flush out criminals from this place.
“By Monday, the mobile police station you have asked for will be here. There will be SAPS and JMPD (Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department) officers stationed at the mobile police station,” Cele promised.
After several mass shootings at taverns in the country in recent months, Cele also complained about an increasing number of places selling alcohol in the Finetown area.
“Our statistics here reveal that rape and murder took place around illegal shebeens. The police must act against those shebeens. We are not fighting. We want to improve lives,” he said.
“I have asked the police to help us. They must find those people (Finetown killers). They must find them, standing or lying on the ground. By the time we return, we must know what happened. You said they (killers) are not from here. They have victimised the people of this place.
“You have said they speak fluent Sesotho. We don’t care which language they speak. We want criminals,” Cele added.
Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela said a team from Crime Intelligence, detectives from the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit and forensic investigators were assigned to the case.
“They will work with our community structures around the clock to round up those who did these things. We have had two operations in this area. We will come up with another angle of an operation to deal with issues here.
“Residents from this area must refrain from throwing stones at the police when we conduct our operations. That happened repeatedly. They are protecting criminals,” said Mawela.
He pleaded with residents to come forward with information about criminal activities in Finetown.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
