OPERATION Shanela hits Tshwane streets.
Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Tommy Mthombeni, SAPS senior management and other law enforcement agencies embarked on Operation Shanela in Sunnyside and Pretoria Central, Tshwane on Thursday, 4 November.
Mthombeni said they launched a festive season operation, which was led by national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola in October 2024. He said the province is operationally ready.
"We have a complementary workforce from community and law enforcement officers and other stakeholders. A warning to people who are involved in crime, they must ensure they are not involved in criminal activities. They will really feel the heat as if they are sitting on top of a fire," he said.
Mthombeni said Pretoria Central Police Station and Sunnyside cop shop clearly have challenges in terms of attempted murder and assault cases.
He said the two policing precincts have a challenge in terms of business burglaries, with Sunnyside experiencing more business robberies, while Pretoria Central faced the challenge of car and truck hijackings.
"In the first phase of the operation, we started with suspects raiding with our detectives, and we arrested 1 092 suspects of which 290 suspects are for gender-based violence," he said.
He said in the second phase, they have managed to arrest 113 undocumented foreigners, while at least three people were bust for harbouring illegal immigrants.
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Mthombeni said they arrested three other people in possession of drugs and found a discontinued vehicle.
"Since September 2024 until now, the province had at least 14 or 15 issues of cash-in-transit heist, where thugs tried to engage with police and police retaliated and there were fatalities of not less than 14," he said.
He said they are seeing success with Operation Shanela. In terms of anti-gang, Mthombeni said that they've bust 1 587 suspects from April 2024 to September 2024, of which 65 are for murder, 87 for attempted murder, 214 for possession of unlicenced firearms, and 1 221 for dealing and possession of drugs.
"In terms of Operation Vala Umgodi, we managed to arrest not less than 4 000 people in that period. Out of 4 000, over 3 000 of those arrested are illegal immigrants," he said.
In Winterveld, there have been 246 arrests for online related incidents.
