THE City of Cape Town reported that their law enforcement agencies made 126 arrests over the Easter long weekend, seizing illegal firearms and ammunition, recovering stolen vehicles and arresting hundreds of suspects in a wide-ranging safety crackdown.<\/p>\n
Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (Leap) officers confiscated a vrag weapons in Crossroads on Sunday night after a suspect fled and dropped a bag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside, officers found three firearms, multiple empty magazines and a large quantity of ammunition, which were handed over to Philippi East police.<\/p>\n
Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, said removing illegal firearms from communities remains critical in reducing violence.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cEvery firearm and bullet is potentially a life saved and a crime prevented. While our officers should be lauded for taking guns off our streets on a near daily basis, the harsh reality is that the flood of illicit weapons continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith also raised concerns about low conviction rates for illegal gun possession, attributing this to resource constraints.<\/p>\n
He stressed the need for more targeted policing, saying: \u201cIt was encouraging to see the working relationship between all three, but we must ensure these patrols are intelligence-led to make a lasting impact by targeting the high-flyers in our communities who are driving the shootings.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate operation, Metro Police uncovered a suspected chop shop in the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi East, recovering three stripped vehicles and containers filled with car parts. Suspects fled as officers moved in.<\/p>\n
Officers also recovered a hijacked City of Cape Town vehicle just hours after it was taken earlier on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The intensified operations formed part of broader Easter safety measures across the province, with Western Cape Mobility Minister Isaac Sileku confirming a zero-tolerance approach on the roads.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe are entering one of the busiest periods on our calendar. I am pleased to see that our Provincial Traffic Services have already moved into a high-visibility, zero-tolerance approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the N1 Huguenot Toll Plaza, hundreds of vehicles were stopped and checked, with some declared unroadworthy.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Operation Exodus at the Joe Gqabi Public Transport Interchange provided safety checks for long-distance taxis and buses, supported by drone monitoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE City of Cape Town reported that their law enforcement agencies made 126 arrests over the Easter long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[4861,71058,77528,4966,1694,80836,91060,91059,18942,7563,91061,91058,28888,131,3537],"class_list":["post-176079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-city-of-cape-town","tag-crossroads","tag-easter","tag-firearms","tag-iol-news","tag-isaac-sileku","tag-joe-gqabi-public-transport-interchange","tag-law-enforcement-advancement-plan","tag-marikana","tag-metro-police","tag-n1-huguenot-toll-plaza","tag-operation-exodus","tag-philippi-east","tag-south-africa","tag-western-cape"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116365523945853825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}