By REGINALD KANYANE
17 August 2025- The police in Northern Cape said fostering of a holistic approach through the execution of Operation Shanela II ensures a unified and cohesive response to criminal activities in the province. The police said multi-disciplinary actions conducted from 11 until 17 August 2025, resulted to in the arrest of 318 perpetrators.
The Northern Cape police spokesperson, Colonel Cherelle Ehlers said teams operating in all five districts, inspected numerous liquor outlets for non-compliance to ensure perpetrators face the full might of the law. Ehlers said this led to the closure of 16 unlicensed establishments.
“The concerted interaction with other law enforcement agencies resulted in the searching of 8010 persons and 3717 vehicles at vehicle check points (VCPs) and roadblocks, as well as high visibility patrols conducted across the province.
“In reflection of Women’s Month, Operation Basadi under the umbrella of Operation Shanela II, performed targeted actions across all five districts as part of the province’s coordinated crime combatting strategy to address gender-based violence, extortion, drug related offences, illegal firearms, contact crimes and vehicle related crimes,” she said.
Ehlers further said suspects were arrested for serious crimes, including dealing in drugs, murder and attempted murder, rape and burglary.
“Detectives also conducted tracing operations in search of wanted suspects who failed to make court appearances or for whom warrants of arrests were issued,” said Ehlers.
She added that compliance inspections were conducted at numerous second-hand dealers and liquor premises as well as formal and informal businesses, farms, and scrapyards. Ehlers said during the execution of the operations, police confiscated a significant amount of alcohol, drugs, dangerous weapons, firearms and ammunition and copper cables.
“Ongoing community engagements and awareness programmes focusing on women, children and vulnerable groups were held in conjunction with community policing structures and government departments to address prevalent crime trends, such as Gender-Based Violence (GBV), youth and crime as well as alcohol and substance abuse,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Northern Cape Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola expressed her sincere appreciation for the forceful collaboration between various government departments and community structures in the successful execution of recent operations. Otola reiterated that heightened and enhanced high-density operations will continue to target crime hotspots in the identified high crime areas across the province.
The Guardian 