Police in Cape Town say they are working with local law enforcement and traffic services to bolster security at various taxi ranks after a spike in taxi-related shootings.
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa says scores of taxis have been impounded since Friday night.
He says the SAPS leadership in the Western Cape, together with the City of Cape Town law enforcement, assessed the effectiveness of the operational deployments against the backdrop of shooting incidents linked to the taxi violence within Cape Town that occurred recently.
Potelwa says the assessment included accessing the city’s public safety joint operational centre in Parow, where live visuals of the crime hotspots are transmitted for optimal operational response.
“With the execution of the joint operational plan into taxi-related shooting incidents in Cape Town in full swing, the leadership of the integrated law enforcement agencies comprising the SAPS in the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement agencies met on Friday morning for an assessment exercise at the Municipality’s joint public safety operational centre in Parow”.
‘The assessment meeting afforded the joint security management core opportunity to view live visuals from identified hotspots transmitted through the City’s joint public safety operational centre. The centre transmits visuals from its extensive camera network to the centre for prompt and appropriate operational response”, he adds.
He says on Friday night “three suspects were swiftly arrested and four firearms seized by the Mfuleni SAPS crime prevention unit members who were strategically deployed as a response to taxi-related shootings targeting taxi operators in residential areas. The arrests happened shortly after a taxi driver who was in a vehicle with a female companion came under attack from gunmen who fled after shooting. The taxi driver succumbed to his injuries, and the woman suffered injuries and was taken to a medical facility”.