Police minister visits Mariannhill after nine killed in shootout

Police Minister Bheki Cele has vowed to enforce the full might of the police force on criminals who terrorise residents.

He was speaking to the community of Mariannhill on Thursday after a gang of nine suspects died in a shootout with police on Wednesday.

Cele also visited the family of a teenager who was allegedly raped by the gang.

According to the police, four of the killed suspects were connected to the rape of the 16-year-old in January.

Minister Cele denied that police were trigger happy, saying they were responding to the circumstances they faced.

“We have lost many police officers on and off duty, they themselves are also targets. So when they deal with suspected hardcore criminals, police must respond in a way that corresponds to the kind of people they are faced with. It cannot be true that these people are shot unprovoked, but the investigations do tell us what happens. Yes, we would love to arrest the criminals, but what I would not love to see is that after these operations, we bury a police officer,” said Cele.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said they had noted an increase in the number of suspected criminals who were allegedly being killed in shootouts with police.

“In the last two days, Ipid received reports of incidents of police allegedly killing nine suspected criminals in KZN and six in Mpumalanga. Ipid has already started investigations into these cases. The law allows the police to defend themselves and community members if they are faced with violent situations, but we, however, are aware of the increasing number of suspects that are allegedly killed in shootouts with the police,” read the statement issued by Ipid.

It said the Ipid Act mandated it to investigate all cases of death as a result of police actions, and discharge of an official firearm by any police officer.

“We have observed an increase in a number of these cases. The increase in the number of reported cases has an impact on the speedy finalisation of investigations, because the more cases are reported to Ipid, the longer it takes for Ipid investigators to finalise them due to an increased workload.”