More than 500 000 suspects arrested since Operation Shanela’s inception

Police Minister Bheki Cele says over half a million people have been arrested across the country since the launch of Operation Shanela.

Cele gave an update on progress made in addressing serious crimes in the country in Pretoria on Sunday.

Operation Shanela was launched in May 2023 in an attempt to clamp down on crime in high-density areas across the country.

“Officers in blue across all nine provinces have led close to 70,000 high-density crime prevention operations,” Cele said.

Cele said a majority of people nabbed through this operation were suspects of assault with an intent to cause grievous bodily harm, with 63, 573 of them arrested.

Following this group were a little over 41,000 suspects who were arrested for the Contravention of the Immigration Act after being found to be in the country illegally.

Other arrests include 8, 563 suspected rapists, 6 045 murder suspects, and 4, 410 suspects for attempted murder.

Cele said Operation Shanela’s crime-prevention focus will continue to be made possible when local, provincial, traffic police, and other related departments continue to work together.

The Police Minister also revealed that over 150 suspected criminals have been killed by police since April 2023 during takedown operations.

The figures come amid growing concerns over the rise in killings of suspected criminals by police.

Last week, 14 suspects were shot dead in two separate incidents in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

Cele said investigations into the incidents were underway:

“The death of any person in the country should never be a cause of celebration. There is IPID [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] to investigate the actions of police in such cases. We wish to allow those processes to unfold.”

-EWN

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