Murder, attempted murder suspect to appear in court 

A 30-year-old suspect is expected to appear in court soon for the attempted murder of two police officers as well as the murder of a neighbour, said the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).

The suspect who also faces charges of the possession of unlicensed firearms among others, was sought in KwaZulu-Natal and in Gauteng. The suspect was arrested and detained in Johannesburg in an intelligence driven operation on Saturday. 

The arrest was made by the Serious Organised Crime Investigation’s Tactical Operations Management Section (TOMS) assisted by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial tracing team, SAPS National Modus Operandi Centre and Johannesburg District Aggravated Robberies team.

“The Pretoria based Hawks’ TOMS team in collaboration with the Pietermaritzburg Serious Organised Crime Investigation operationalised information that was received and the team was granted a warrant of arrest to detain one suspect at the Jeppe area …. in connection with murder, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition [and] also attempted murder of two police officials as well as a murder of his neighbour in KwaZulu-Natal,” said the Hawks in a statement on Sunday.

According to the Hawks, several attempts to secure his appearance in court were in vain. 

“The suspect was also expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrates court on 28 July 2024, possession of unlicensed firearm but failed to do so because at the time he was also being sought for murder in KwaZulu-Natal. 

The suspect will [be] be appearing in court soon on [the] Jeppe case facing charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm then transferred to KwaZulu-Natal where he will answer to [the] murder and attempted murder as per [the] Estcourt case as well as murder as per [the] Loskop case. All the crimes were committed this year,” said the Hawks. SAnews.gov.za