A City Metro Police Officer was wounded in the Sweet Home informal settlement on Wednesday, July 14. According to a statement by the City’s Mayco member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, the officer was amongst a group of Metro Police and SAPS officers giving chase after a group of suspects allegedly opened fire on a taxis along Jakes Gerwel Drive.
The officer, whose identity is not known yet, sustained a bullet wound to the leg and is currently receiving medical attention. Meanwhile, this incident comes after several taxi-related shootings in the Western Cape this past week.
Smith says the city is fully aware that the Western Cape Transport Department has been engaging taxi organisations in a bid to stop the violence, and urges taxi operators to seek a different difference approach.
” It places innocent lives at risk and inconveniences commuters who are left stranded as taxi services are not operating normally. It is also important to note that all of the disruptions experienced today relate to the taxi conflict, and are in no way linked to the unrest being experienced in other parts of the country,” Smith said.
Smith added that a small group of people attempted to gain entry into a local shopping complex in Khayelitsha on Tuesday, July 13, but was stopped following swift action from Neighbourhood Watch members who alerted the SAPS.
Meanwhile, MEC for Community Safety, Albert Fritz joined several neighbourhood watch groups in Mitchells Plain on Wednesday, as part of the Western Cape Governments safety plan in case looting action should erupt in the province.
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