The Gauteng provincial commissioner, lieutenant general Elias Mawela led a successful Operation Shanela in Orlando and Diepkloof on the morning on November 02.
The operation which was aimed at stamping the authority of the state and assisting the local police stations with the reduction of crime saw various law enforcement agencies joining hands with an effort to fight crime.
According to lieutenant general, Mawela, Soweto is one of the townships that have been neglected when it comes to conducting operations and the SAPS aims to work harder to rectify that.
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“It has been long since we came to Soweto, I felt that we should come and touch base in the area, fight crime and bring a level of confidence to the community.
“Previously when I came to Soweto, the crime rate was not so good in Orlando and Diepkloof police stations.
“So this was also an opportunity to check if the police stations has an improvement but I am happy to say that there has been an improvement for the last quarter that ended in September,” Mawela said.
He noted that these two police stations have done well to reduce crime thus far but there are still concerns about other criminal activities that have been reported such as house and business robberies, car hijacking, and the increased use and access to drugs.
“These are some of the issues that we were able to combat today. Assault and the issue of GBV also remain a concern across the province.
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“If you analyse our contact crime you can see that they contribute 40 percent of the contact crime so this clearly tells you that as a society we do not have better ways to resolve our conflicts, we still opt for violence and we still have a long way to go.”
Lieutenant general Mawela urged residents not to take matters into their own hands and report criminal activities in their areas to their local police stations.
