City of Johannesburg Member of the Mayoral Committee responsible for Public Safety, Mgcini Tshwaku, has warned that law enforcement authorities won’t hesitate to use lethal weapons, when confronted by criminals.
Tshwaku’s comments come after Sunday’s shootout between the police and illegal miners at Matholeville near Roodepoort when he paid a surprise visit, catching the criminals off guard who then fired shots at the MMC together with members of the JMPD who had accompanied him.
The police returned fire and chased the suspects who ran up to the mountains in-full view of the community. Tshwaku said they went to the area to arrest the criminals but warned that the police would retaliate and shoot to kill if necessary.
“We did what is called a deviation operation. Many people thought that I’m going to Riverlea. I knew the operation was in Matholeville because our intelligence gathering is pointing us here, we heard that there are guns that are stored here,” added.
Tshwaku said the illegal miners commonly referred to as Zama-Zamas also responsible for a spate of rapes in the area and the community has been complaining about crimes committed by the criminals in the area.
“They rape women and they go up in the mountain as you can see there I have been receiving a lot of cries about this area, so we had to do this operation.” One suspect was arrested during the operation.
