Police refining crime-combating strategies after spate of mass shootings

National police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola says the spate of mass shootings in provinces like the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape are concerning and require the police to ramp up efforts.

Masemola said the shootings are often perpetrated with illegal, unlicensed and high-calibre firearms. 

On Monday, Masemola detailed progress on countrywide operations, police successes and major takedowns.

He said the recent shootings have seen police refining their crime-combating strategies. 

“It is encouraging that in most, if not all, mass shootings arrests have been made. For example, in the Eastern Cape, another mass murder claimed the lives of five family members last week, but within days of the commission of the crime, two suspects were arrested and the weapon believed to have been used in the commission of the crime was seized. Still in the Eastern Cape, five men were shot and killed in New Brighton. The person believed to have pulled the trigger was hunted down at an informal settlement where he did not surrender himself when called on to do so but instead fired at police officers. He sustained a fatal gunshot wound,” Masemola said.

He said the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Western Cape, the latter where there were ongoing gang-related killings, needed to be singled out as they were the provinces where the majority of mass-shooting incidents were taking place. 

“Our operational focus therefore remains on tracing wanted known criminals and detecting and removing illegal firearms from our streets. In all these areas, we have beefed up and reinforced deployments and also deployed specialised teams inclusive of intelligence and organised crime detectives.”

He said the four provinces are always prioritised and receive the largest number of newly trained police officers each year to heighten and increase police visibility.

“We can plan and co-ordinate but if we don’t have our communities’ co-operation we are not going to be able to win this battle alone. Our communities, which have been instrumental in providing information to the police across the country, need to stay on board and continue to work closely with us so we are able to prevent and combat incidents of this nature,” he said.

Masemola said more than 900,000 suspects had been arrested over a 17-month period through operation Shanela.

Through crime-combating operations, police were seizing and confiscating no fewer than 100 illegal firearms weekly that were being used in serious and violent crimes across the country.

“Just this past week, 132 firearms were seized and in the previous week 138 firearms were seized. From April to date, police have seized more than 4,400 firearms during operations across the country. These include high-calibre firearms used in these mass killings and armed robberies. Most of these firearms are seized in KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. The sources of some of these firearms have been identified and are being investigated,” Masemola said.

Between January and June, 97 wanted cash-in-transit robbery suspects were arrested. 


He said 18 AK47 automatic rifles and 35 vehicles used in these heists were seized. 

Masemola said fewer incidents of cash-in-transit robberies were being experienced and there was a downward trend in the number of cases reported since the execution of the operation.

He added that the interception of 14 drug traffickers at OR Tambo International Airport in three months was a sign police were moving in the right direction in dealing with transnational organised crime syndicates. 

“That our intelligence is able to detect and apprehend these drug traffickers, who are mostly swallowing these drugs, indicates we are a step ahead of criminals who are trying everything to traffic drugs into South Africa.”

Masemola said the fight against extortion-related crimes was also being intensified.

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