Africa-Press – South-Africa. Ten suspects have been arrested over the ransacking of the Gift of the Givers’ office in Athlone, Cape Town, and most of the stolen goods have been recovered.
News24 previously reported that the office was ransacked in the early hours of Monday morning. A laptop, TV, office equipment and relief packs for Western Cape fire victims were among the items stolen.
Police received information from members of the public that the humanitarian organisation’s stolen goods were being stored in four properties in Hanover Park.
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said a joint operation was immediately conducted by members of Maitland Flying Squad, SAPS K9, National Intervention Unit, Metro police, Metro K9 and law enforcement.
“Upon searching the identified premises, stolen property was recovered which was identified by a representative of the organisation as their property.
A case was reported at Lansdowne SAPS,” said Van Wyk.
Gift of the Givers chairperson Dr Imtiaz Sooliman commended the police and the community for their swiftness in apprehending the perpetrators and confirmed to News24 that “most of the equipment has been recovered”.
“We want to assure those who are still awaiting assistance from the Gift of the Givers that this break-in will not affect them. Our work will continue. This break-in happened in one of our small offices, it was not our warehouse.
The Athlone facility is where we keep our supplies during the festive period to avoid opening the main warehouse over the holiday season,” Sooliman told News24.
He said that if necessary they would seek alternative supplies to make sure the victims affected by the devastating fires in the past couple of weeks won’t be affected.
“We don’t think that criminals are targeting the organisation because of the work we do. This was just a fringe element. We know that the country fully supports the work we do.
“In our 30-year existence this has been the second burglary. Criminals largely know that the community supports us in a big way. We cannot control criminality, unfortunately,” said Sooliman.
The organisation said it was due to the community’s belief in its work that prompted members of the public to reveal where the stolen goods were being stored.
“On Tuesday morning a family brought their son to us who was arrested for buying the stolen goods. He came to apologise and return the stolen things as he did not know he bought stolen stuff,” Sooliman said.
“The message is clear: our work will not be affected, the support for the victims will not be affected.”Police thanked the community for their assistance in nabbing the suspects.
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