Kurt Oliver, Westridge
Sergeant Quintin Nogo and Constable Rouan Scheepers, attached to the local SAPS Flying Squad, arrested three syndicate hijackers, after a car chase and shooting between the hijackers and the police, from Langa until Mowbray, on Saturday September 22.
These two policemen also arrested two suspects earlier the same day for attempted hijacking.
During each shift these members make arrests, recover firearms and the hijacked vehicles.
If a policeman makes an alleged mistake, there is an instant investigation but these outstanding duties get ignored.
On their rest days they must attend courts, with their private cars but do not get remunerated.
Officers are too scared to stand up for their junior-ranked colleagues because they only think of themselves.The good old days are gone when officers were prepared to take time off and motivate reports for members’ extraordinary work for promotion purposes.
The members’ pension will benefit inevitably. We also frequently hear negativity and criticisms about our policemen and policewomen but this great police work gets hidden.
Police officials’ lives are in danger, at all times. Their families are traumatised when they resume duties and still there is no real appreciation and recognition. Well done.
Lieutenant Colonel André Traut, SAPS provincial spokesman, responds: The good work by our members is not hidden as indicated by the media statement issued Sunday September 23, regarding arrests made by members of the Flying Squad.
In pursuit of a safer environment for the Western Cape community, members attached to the Flying Squad conducted a search for a hijacked vehicle in the Mitchell’s Plain area , after they were alerted by a tip-off.
Their search led them to a business premises in Sixth Avenue, Eastridge, where the hijacked VW Polo was discovered.
Upon further investigation an unlicensed .38 Special and five rounds of ammunition, 168 mandrax tablets and stencils used to change vehicle identification credentials were found. Seven men and two women, aged between 19 and 40, were arrested and appeared in Mitchell’s Plain Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday September 25.
Members of the Flying Squad were also responsible for the arrest of two men on Friday afternoon (September 21), after they searched the Athlone area for a black VW Polo which had been spotted at several armed robberies in the peninsula.
The vehicle in question was found at a mall in Athlone and the two men, aged 32 and 34, were arrested in possession of a 9mm firearm without a serial number, 17 rounds of ammunition and four grams of cocaine.
Both of them were wanted for an armed robbery perpetrated in Milnerton in July.
The suspects appeared in Athlone Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday September 26.