Pretoria – A 31-year-old man was fatally wounded during an alleged shoot-out with the police in Mmatswale township on the outskirts of Musina in Limpopo.
Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said the suspected criminal identified as Zimbabwean national Prince Dube died on Tuesday, while one of his accomplices was arrested.
“The police received information about the believably dangerous suspect who, together with his companions, were allegedly terrorising the community around Musina with armed robberies and other serious crimes. A dedicated team of the local members was assembled and conducted a snap search operation at the identified location,” said Mojapelo.
The law enforcement team succeeded in apprehending the suspect.
“Further probe led the members to the suspect’s alleged accomplices in the area, and on arrival the suspect allegedly started shooting at the members who returned fire, fatally wounding him. He was identified as Prince Dube from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe,” said Mojapelo.
He said police recovered five illegal firearms, including two pistols, two .303 rifles and one pellet gun, during the operation.
“The firearms will be subjected to ballistic examination to determine if they were used in other serious crimes. Cases of murder, attempted murder and possession of illegal firearms have been opened. The suspect might be linked with other serious crimes as police investigations are unfolding,” said Mojapelo.
In Gauteng, a group comprising South Africans, a Botswana national and Zimbabweans on Monday exchanged extensive gunfire with police officers in Rosettenville, Gauteng.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said the group of men appeared to be well trained and proficient in the use of firearms.
“Our investigators have just left the scene now, they are exhausted. They picked up about a hundred bullets from the scene. They were still picking some this morning,” said Ipid spokesperson Grace Langa.
“It really looks very bad. Some of the deceased robbers were found in people’s yards. Imagine getting to your house and there you found somebody’s body. They were also shooting at police. Some of the bullets are on the roofs of some of the houses in that area. It is a very big scene that will take quite a lot to complete in investigating.”
She said the criminals looked experienced.
“Even the manner in which they were shooting at the police, it looks like people who are well trained. The allegation is that the suspect from Botswana who was arrested is a mastermind. I mean, a person leaves Botswana and comes to commit crime in South Africa and becomes a mastermind of crime. It is saddening,” she said.
“We don’t want to judge. I’m just gonna leave it at that. Ipid is doing its job, only to investigate. The rest, we leave it to the courts.”
She said Ipid had collected the firearms of the police officers who were involved in taking down the criminals.
“So far we have got about 50 names of police officers who were involved. We are going to collect their statements as well. Some of them were really not in a good state. I was there last night when investigators were interviewing them. Some are really traumatised,” said Langa.
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