KZN Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held a press briefing on Monday to outline the operational plan for the Easter holidays.
He also provided a report on the police’s activities in the province over the past financial year and discussed crime trends, successes and challenges and provided updates on high-profile case investigations.
With the Easter long weekend a stone’s throw away, Mkhwanazi said there is still an influx of people coming to KZN to enjoy the warm ocean from Isimangaliso to Port Edward.
“We see a lot of visitors coming here, which then increases the level of crimes and incidents,” Mkhwanazi said.
He said there are also sporting activities and other events that take place in the province.
“We analyse that, we look at the threats, what are the things that might happen,” he said.
He said people are moving between South Africa and neighbouring countries over this period and this prompted a need for an increase in operations,” Mkhwanazi said.
He said their plan includes the pre-Easter holiday with phase 1 and 2, easter weekend with phase 3 and post-Easter with phase 4.
“The plan focuses on making sure that we not only deal with hardcore crime or criminal activities, but we deal with the soft things like public drinking, that contribute to crime in general,” Mkhwanazi said.
He said they have to avail their officers in places that have gatherings.
Mkhwanazi said their planned operations are focused on five pillars: intelligence gathering, analysis and coordination; proactive; combat and reaction; reactive (detection); and awareness (communication).
“Where we collect information about events that are going to take place, gatherings that are going to take place as well as potential criminal activities that are going to take place,” Mkhwanazi explained.
“Then we have proactive deployments in the form of more roadblocks, we increase the level of roadblocks during this time in order to be able to manage more crimes that are happening.”
Mkhwanazi said patrols, stop-and-searches and the like are included in the plan.
“We still have those teams that are out there hunting for those dangerous criminals,” He stated.
Mkhwanazi said they will coordinate this operation involving the SANDF, State Security and private security, just to name a few.
“It’s not just KZN. It’s a directive from the national office. All provinces are running a similar thing during this time of the year,” Mkhwanazi said.
On high profile cases, Mkhwanazi said the five of the suspects, Lindokuhle Thabani Mkhwanazi, Lindokuhle Mhlaliseni Ndimande, Mziwethemba Harvey Gwabeni, Eddie Siyanda Myeza and Lindani Zenzele Ndimande, accused of the murder of rapper Kiernan Jarryd ‘AKA’ Forbes and chef Tebello ‘Tibz’ Motsoane, will appear in the Durban High Court on May 8.
Additionally, the extradition process for Malusi Dave Ndimande and Siyabonga Ndimande, is ongoing in Eswatini. Heads of arguments will be held on April 22 at the Manzini Magistrate’s Court. The duo will also appear on May 8 regarding the extradition process.
Meanwhile, investigations continue to find the mastermind behind the July 2024 attempted murder of Advocate Coreth Naude. Two suspects were arrested in Cape Town last December and are undergoing processes.
