Armed and dangerous criminals in the Ivory Park area continue to feel the full effect of the police’s Operation Buya Mthetho, a crime-fighting plan that aims to stabilise the surge in lawlessness and to restore safety and public confidence in the country’s law enforcement agencies.
On Monday, when South Africans were celebrating Heritage Day, members of the Ivory Park SAPS crime prevention unit arrested two suspects for illegal possession of unlicensed firearms.
According to the Ivory Park SAPS communications officer, Captain Bernard Matimulane, in the first incident the police arrested a 20-year-old man for alleged possession of an unlicensed firearm, while the second suspect was arrested later in the evening after another crime prevention team found him in possession of a pistol whose serial numbers had been erased. The arrest of the two men bring to six the number of firearms recovered in the Ivory Park area in the past week alone. Matimulane added furthermore a total of five suspects have been arrested in connection with these possessions.
The station commander of the Ivory Park SAPS, Brigadier David Mbongeni Ngcobo, is, as expected, very pleased with these recoveries and the arrests.
Ngcobo is further encouraged by the ever-increasing role played by the community in the successes.
“Judging by the manner in which these firearms were recovered, it is clear to me that had the community not done what they did, these firearms would still be on the streets, terrorising people,” said Ngcobo.
Ngcobo said that in line with the intentions of Operation Buya Mthetho, Ivory Park SAPS is moving full steam ahead to reduce the volume of crime in this area, and has further called upon all law-abiding citizens to report crime in their neighbourhoods.
