A crime fighter instrumental in a high speed chase involving a getaway taxi during a Police operation in Polokwane last Thursday night is reportedly battling for his life in intensive care after allegedly being attacked with assault rifles in Seshego three days later.
A case of attempted murder is being investigated after an incident on Sunday at around 20:30 after the 36-year-old victim, whose identity is being protected, was allegedly shot in his vehicle outside his home in Seshego’s Zone 2.
According to Provincial Police spokesperson Moatshe Ngoepe no arrest had been made as yet.
On Tuesday the spokesperson for the medical facility where the victim is being treated informed Polokwane Observer that he is in a critical yet stable condition.
A large contingent of law enforcers, Community Policing Forum (CPF) members and crime combatants – under the lead of Polokwane Police Visible Policing Commander Andre Kotze – was out in full force to curb drunken driving, drinking in public, drug peddling and prostitution from around 19:00 until 00:00 last Thursday. The evening’s operation commenced with a roadblock on the way to Ladanna, followed by searches in the lower part of Polokwane’s central business district. It was afterwards learnt that a female member of Leeuwkuil CPF was apparently injured on the lower leg when hit by a silver BMW, with Gauteng registration, while she was doing duty at the roadblock. The team was back at it again on Friday night until the early hours of the next morning when they mainly focused on driving under the influence of alcohol during a roadblock staged at the same location.
Car chase
Thursday evening’s car chase was the result of the driver of a taxi, of which the details are being withheld, seemingly disregarding orders at the roadblock conducted along the stretch between town and Ladanna. In the dead of night crime fighters gave chase in two vehicles and a relentless attempt to escape saw the minibus driver opting for the fastest route out along Railway Street, bumping over a vacant gravel patch and curbs into Vermikuliet Street before taking a left into Nelson Mandela Drive in the direction of Westenburg. On the bridge the driver climbed the curb and took the route to Seshego, leading to the two vehicles subsequently trying to bring the taxi to a halt along the double carriageway. In the vicinity of Madiba Park the taxi driver made another U-turn and headed into Luthuli Park’s Extension 2 where the vehicle was discovered abandoned on a sidewalk minutes later, with a punctured tyre, a dent on the right side and the shards of a broken window scattered on one of the seats. On the scene, which drew attention in the neighbourhood that time of the evening, it was learnt that the taxi driver had been brandishing a gun and that he had hit another car during the chase. It was established that a case of reckless and negligent driving was instituted afterwards.
Successes stemming from two operations
That same evening a traffic officer from Makhado was reportedly among those arrested for alleged driving under the influence of alcohol, in addition to 15 more suspects. Further arrests included a suspect driving a car that was stopped along a street downtown for a search that led to the discovery of illegal substances. At the same time 11 women in tight outfits up for alleged prostitution were locked up after being discovered in the lower part of the city centre around Bok and President Paul Kruger streets. On the way to the Police station one of the suspects, who said she had just been released from custody on a similar charge six days prior, indicated that she counted an estimated ten customers a day who paid between R70 and R100 for a sexual encounter.
The following night a man suspected of being a government official driving a white luxury vehicle was among 27 suspects taken in at the roadblock for alcohol levels apparently exceeding the allowed limit.
Around midnight a convoy of four vans with drunken driving suspects had to be escorted to a local hospital for the relevant tests to be conducted, a lengthy process expected to have continued way into the night.
As the suspects were rounded up during the course of the night a scene unfolded as a person forcefully resisted arrest, which required repeated effort to secure his confinement.
In between team members responded to, among others, a frantic call from Pietersburg Street where a panga-wielding man was earlier discovered on a rooftop by the eight occupants of a dwelling on a premises. He, however, managed to slip through and escape the might of the law. Just for the time being though, came the assurance.
As the city was sleeping a committed team of law enforcers continued unabated in their endeavours to make it a safer place, irrespective of a myriad dangers posed and the knowledge that one of them would be rendered a victim of a heinous crime 72 hours later.
Story:
Yolande Nel | observer.yolande@gmail.com
RC Myburgh | rc.observer@gmail.com
