Operation Punch yields success for the City of Cape Town

Loyiso Langeni
24 January 2014

The City of Cape Town said in the last five years it has developed a whole range of interventions to deal with the gang phenomena and the drug economy that underpins it.

Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith said the city has developed R28 million dedicated expenditure projects in the city. 

JP Smith the operation punch that has been running for the last week already, in response to the rolling gang violence across the city.

“The Operation Punch which has been operating for about a week now in response to the rolling gang violence in the city, and it is a great pity that the national police force and the criminal justice system has not been bale to impact properly in this situation and our conviction rate are low.   in the absence of metro police we will do what we can even though we have limited powers and we are not allowed to do investigations". Smith added.

Meanwhile 15 people including a South African Police Detective were arrested in Delft and Harare for dealing in drugs and being involved in property related crimes.  Smith said the arrests were due to the successful operation of Operation Punch by the City of Cape Town. 

Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith said the operation has exposed a SAPS detective along with several suspects, 9 people were arrested in a house in Delft. They were found in possession of drugs, unlicensed firearms and ammunition. The detective was charged for being in possession of unlicensed firearm, unlicensed vehicle, corruption and defeating the ends of justice.

"What it appears this detective was handing over narcotics and possible firearms that have been confiscated in police raids from one gang to one another gang or a group of drug merchants.” Smith added.

He concluded by saying the same unit in Harare worked with SAPS to arrest a wanted suspect who was linked to a syndicate involved in crimes and during the search they also found mandrax on the property who later was arrested for possession of illegal narcotics.