An eventful week for City of Cape Town’s enforcement departments saw the successful arrest of 279 people for various offences, as well as the recovery of seven firearms and ammunition – including a stash hidden in a hole behind a bath.
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According to the City, law enforcement officers made 174 arrests, of which all but two were made by Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officers, for possession of drugs, ammunition and dangerous weapons, among other offences.
In what seems like a game of hide-and-seek, the LEAP officers arrested one man in Hanover Park who had a firearm hidden under the carpet of his car, one man in Delft who had two firearms hidden underneath the mattress and a driver in Khayelitsha who had avoided a vehicle checkpoint and was stopped. A 9mm pistol was found under his seat.
The latest round of hide-and-seek on Friday, 31 May, resulted in metro officers arresting a 45-year-old woman in Hanover Park after having recovered 29 rounds of ammunition hidden in a hole behind the bath.
Additionally, metro police also recovered two other firearms in separate incidents in Hanover Park and Manenberg last week. A 29-year-old was subsequently arrested in the Hanover Park incident and a 23-year-old in Manenberg.
This took the department’s tally of arrests for the week to 48.
‘Gun violence threatens us all and many of our communities live in fear. While the arrests and confiscations may seem never-ending, we must remember that for each firearm confiscated, at least one life is saved, not counting any number of innocent residents who could have been injured,’ says City’s MMC for Safety and Security JP Smith.
‘The rampant shooting won’t be halted overnight until we see serious reform in the criminal justice system, but until then our enforcement staff will continue to remove illegal firearms from the street,’ added Smith.
‘We will continue to take action against those who threaten our communities as everyone deserves to live, work and play in a safe environment.’
Meanwhile, the remaining 57 of the total arrests last week were made by City’s traffic officers. Of the 57, a whopping 48 were for driving under the influence of alcohol, while three were for reckless and negligent driving and six for various other offences, including having false identification and assaulting an officer.
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Picture: City of Cape Town
