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Police Minister Bheki Cele confirmed on Thursday that the suspect arrested for his involvement in a cash heist syndicate was an employee of the ANC, involved in the organising committee of the party, based at Luthuli House.
Cele was addressing a media briefing in the Western Cape with Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole, on the progress and updates on Operation Thunder, the South African Police Service’s intensive intervention and stabilisation programme aimed at curbing the growing scourge of gangsterism in the Western Cape.
“We don’t profile people as we arrest them, either their nationalities immediately after the arrest, either their tribes, either their political affiliations, we just arrest criminals as we find the area where criminal activity has been committed,” Cele said.
Errol Velile Present was arrested along with three other suspects in Dobsonville, Soweto, on July 4 after a 72-hour action plan was conducted by crime intelligence, the Hawks, SAPS and the police’s special task force.
“This is his third cash heist. Two [were in] North West plus this one,” Cele said, adding that Present had a previous brush with the law for drunken driving.
“What happens with Luthuli [House] and him is not my business. My business is to say he’s arrested,” Cele said.
Speaking about the progress that has been made in the nine stations in the Western Cape since Operation Thunder was launched in May, Cele said that they were making headway and managed to arrest suspects accused of rape, murder, drug dealing and gang-related crimes.
A total of 5111 arrests have been made so far.
On May 25, serial rapist Mlondolozi Ntulo was arrested in Hermanus and charged with 11 counts of rape.
Cele said that his arrest was one of the few successes Operation Thunder had when it came to dealing with crimes against women and children.
“We are quite pleased [with regards to] the question of women and children [safety]. These are some of [the] few successes. This guy is accused of 11 rapes, so if we can take those people out of the system, it makes life better for all of us. It’s important for continuing work in that way,” he said.
Cele also spoke about how some communities have been rallying support for the police services work, with some even asking the temporary bases which have been set up to remain permanently.
“We have created the problem that communities are saying the police [must not] move away anymore. Remember these are temporal bases, but they say they want those base camps to permanently stay there.”
He also said that the police would learn from the methodologies used in operation thunder, and that there was no need for the South African National Defence Force to intervene within the communities.
Mmusi Maimane, Democratic Alliance leader, had called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy the army to Cape Town’s gang hotspots.
“We need to discuss those who are calling for the deployment here, so that we find a better way of doing it, but we fully believe that we have not reached, and we are not about to reach the time where we are going to deploy the SANDF members in the Western Cape,” he explained.
“The police, we are satisfied that we are turning the tide, we are satisfied that as the South African Police we are learning our lessons,” Cele said.
