Pretoria – Gauteng’s police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela, said suspects wanted for the mass shooting at a tavern in Soweto had fled to a country in the SADC region.
“My detectives are doing very well, led by my deputy here, Major-General (Mbuso) Khumalo. They have identified those who are responsible, or those who perpetrated these crimes. They (the detectives) have even approached the courts. We (have) got the warrants of arrest for those individuals. We know that those people have left the country,” Mawela told broadcaster eNCA as he led an Operation O Kae Molao anti-crime blitz around Benoni.
He said the SAPS detectives, led by Khumalo, had contacted police in the unspecified neighbouring country in a bid to have them arrested and ultimately extradited to South Africa.
“We do have the bilateral relations with the countries around here. We also have the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation team, which is working together with all the law enforcement agencies in the region. He (Khumalo) has conveyed the message to his counterpart in that country. We do not want to reveal it now,” said Mawela.
“As soon as the colleagues have done their part on the other side, obviously we do have extradition agreements with those countries. We also have mutual legal assistance with those countries. We will not have a challenge to bring them over to come and stand trial once they are arrested in those countries.”
Khumalo added that the group of suspects they were pursuing had five members.
“Like my provincial commissioner, I am not going to reveal the country. It is true that two of the suspects are members (of the police force) from that country, and (another one is) also a member of the defence force from that country,” said Khumalo.
“We are communicating with officials in that country. The warrants of arrest were forwarded, so we are waiting for the feedback from them to tell us that they have come right.”
In July, the death toll in relation to the mass-shooting incident at Nomzamo informal settlement in Soweto rose to 16, after an additional victim died in hospital.
IOL