JOINT MEDIA BRIEFING BY MEC WM MORWENG AND MAJOR GENERAL PATRICK ASANENG
2024/2025 SAFER FESTIVE OPERATIONS
Thursday, 06 February 2025
MEC Boardroom, Tirelo Building – Mmabatho
Acting Provincial Police Commissioner, Major General Patrick Asaneng
Head of the Department, Dr Hans Kekana
Deputy Provincial Commissioners here present and other senior SAPS Officers
Chief Director for Civilian Cecretariat, Mrs Mpho Rantona
Chief Director for Transport Regulations, Mr Molefi Morule
Members of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning,
We activated the annual Safer Festive Operations on the 17th of October 2024 at the Mmabatho Stadium. The operation itself had begun two weeks earlier on the 01st of October 2024. The Operation which was led by the Souha African Police Services is a multi-disciplinary PROVJOINTS coordinated operation comprised of the different Pillars or identified threats and executed in pre-determined phases. During the Provincial activation, the different law enforcement and security agencies were deployed to execute their line function operational mandates as encompassed in the different Operational Focus Pillars or areas.
The operation which ran for four months, from the 1st of October 2024 to the 31st of January 2025 had been highly successful in that law enforcement officers were able to among others foil planned Cash in Transit and ATM bombings.
The operation was intended to focus but not limited to the following:
Prevention of crimes against vulnerable groups; the elderly, women and children as well as people with disability
Combatting aggravated robberies including vehicle hijackings, robberies at residential premises and business robberies
Enhancing border security and preventing stolen property from crossing the borders
Combatting drugs and human trafficking and tracing of wanted suspects
Enforcement of legislation in respect of firearms, liquor and second-hand goods
Ensure that there is compliance with Safety of the Sports and Recreational Events Act, SASREA
Enforcing by-laws targeting hijacked buildings, unlawful sale and use of fire crackers
Joint law enforcement operations to ensure compliance with road safety and other road regulations
Combatting drunken driving, speeding and all moving violations
Inspection of vehicles for roadworthiness
The operation will also be on the lookout for cloned vehicles and cloned licence plates
Relentless multi-disciplinary operations, had also confiscated contrabands ranging from counterfeit goods, expired foods, as well as suspected stolen and robbed goods. It is as a result of these targeted intelligence led operations, that the Province had relative quieter festive period. There were festivities across the Province including Mahika Mahikeng, the annual Makapanstad Trooper festival, the Potchefstroom Dam music festival and tourists visiting Sun City and Harbeespoortdam but all those went with no incident thanks to this Safer Festive Operations.
We did experience some uneasiness at some point especially in December when there were unusually long queues of trucks at three of the Province’s commercial ports of entry with Botswana at Kopfontein, Ramatlabama and Swartkopfontein. This followed the new regulations at the border on the Botswana side which resulted in gridlock. This posed health, security and economic threats and needed an urgent intervention. The chairperson the PROVJOINTS, General Asaneng immediately engaged the Botswana authorities and within two days the traffic congestion and logjam were eased allowing free unobstructed movement of goods and people between the two countries.
Between the 11th of October 2024 and the 31st of January 2025, the law enforcement had arrested twenty thousand, four hundred and seventy (20 470) for a variety of offences. This included one thousand, two hundred and fifty-eight (1 258) undocumented foreign nationals and one hundred and twenty-nine (129) murder suspects. You will remember that since November we had been absorbed by the resurfacing of illegal miners in Stilfontein.
As had been reported in several media engagements, one thousand, nine hundred and sixteen (1 916) illegal miners have been arrested after resurfacing at Margaret and Buffelsfontein Gold Mine at Shafts Number 10 and 11 between August 2024 and January 2025. Furthermore, our operations included visitations to licensed liquor dispensing premises and second-hand good dealers to ensure they comply with the law. We closed down four hundred and eighty-one (481) unlicensed liquor premises as they contravened regulations.
Application of the law and compliance enforcement was not only confined to ordinary members of the community. We had also recently arrested four members of the police in connection with the escape of one of the resurfaced illegal miners, Neo ‘Tiger’ Tshoaeli.
A week ago, we arrested two suspects who had crossed the border and were found to be in possession of crystal meth with an estimated street value of over R30 million Rand in Zeerust at the Ramotshere Moiloa Municipality.
Two weeks ago, we also arrested three suspects in Hartebeespoortdam with hijacked goods worth more than R2 million Rand.
The highlights of some of the successes of these operations by law enforcement are highlighted by the five life terms that were imposed on the accused who was found guilty of aggravated robberies and five counts rape. The other is the triple life sentences imposed on a rape accused who was found guilty of three counts rape committed between May 2010 and September 2023.
Sadly, this criminality which knows no bounds claimed the life of 45-year-old Sergeant Fundiswa Motlhaoleng who was gunned down on the 14th of January 2025, in Klerksdorp as she was on her way to work.
Thanks so much.
ISSUED JOINTLY BY THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY SAFETY AND TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT AND THE OFFICE OF THE SAPS PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER, NW
For enquiries and interviews:
Media Liaison Officer, Mr Charles Matlou: +27 72 444 3093
Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone: +27 (82) 496-9642
