Limpopo shootout: These are the kind of cops SA needs

We don’t often agree with Police Minister Bheki Cele – but he is correct when he says that the cops involved in the biggest criminal shoot-out in the history of this country should be commended.

A suburban house in the Limpopo town of Makhado, Limpopo became the scene of a bloody gun battle on Friday between cops and cash-in-transit heist suspects, which ended with 19 of them dead and one police officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Joe Coetzer, wounded.

Coetzer continued blazing away even after he was hit multiple times. The operation showed that our police service still has the ability to be ruthlessly professional.

From the painstaking way the raid was planned – using months of carefully evaluated intelligence – to the way the cops avoided causing “collateral damage” among civilians in the neighbourhood, speaks to professionalism we seldom see from the men and women in blue.

These cops were not the lazy, overweight, cooldrink-soliciting ones who are so often top of the public mind.

They were the Saps iron fist – which has to be used against the criminal gangs which are threatening to turn our country into a scorched war zone.

Well done to all involved. We look forward to more successes like this.