National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, visited the National Intervention Unit (NIU) offices in Mthatha on 08 September,  following an attack at the specialized unit’s base earlier in the week.

The NIU is staffed with police officers who attend to medium and high-risk incidents, including cash-in-transit heists, kidnappings and armed robberies. These highly trained members are tasked with tracing dangerous and highly armed criminals who are involved in serious and violent crime including extortions.

General Masemola noted that the NIU is “one of the SAPS units that leaves nothing to chance in ensuring the safety and security of all people.” Masemola further added that when they are targeted, “the SAPS will mobilize all resources to stamp the authority of the state, to firstly protect and defend communities, but also to protect our own members.”

Noting the criminals’ willingness to go “as far as tailing our members to their base,” Masemola stated officers are clearly “dealing with criminals who have no regard for the rule of law.”

Masemola stated he was “pleased and encouraged” to learn the suspects were “met with operationally ready and tactically alert members who acted decisively when the situation called for them to do so.” He added that three armed criminals were “taken down” and no police officer seriously injured, apart from a member who was grazed by a bullet but was treated and released from hospital on the same day.

Unfortunately, two days later, the same NIU member who was targeted at the base, was targeted again while on his way to work. However, due to the officer’s “alertness, skill and experience,” the officer was unscathed and managed to return fire at the suspect.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) later traced the suspect to a hideout, and Masemola confirmed he is under police guard in hospital, receiving treatment for gunshot wounds sustained when he attempted to assassinate the NIU member.

In addition, two suspects were arrested, with one linked to the attack on the NIU member, while the other was linked to an extortion incident at Mqanduli clinic on Friday, 06 September. The suspect had entered the clinic and claimed employees were not safe and demanded a protection fee.

“We are not going to fold our arms and allow a situation where our dedicated and hardworking police officers who are entrusted with investigating and tracing hardened criminals are targeted,” said Masemola.

For police to “win the war against these extortionists,” Masemola noted it would require community members to report these incidents by opening cases with the police. “We can only conduct a thorough investigation through the assistance of witnesses and victims of crime, in order to put these perpetrators behind bars.”

Since the launch of the new SAPS hotline two weeks ago, a total of 1180 calls have been received. Unfortunately, 688 were prank calls and 431 were calls to verify the line. The total number of cases reported via the hotline which were extortion related was only 38.