KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and, Liaison, Mr Willies Mchunu, has made a passionate appeal to KwaZulu-Natal communities to protect and defend police officers, saying they are the only shield between communities and heartless criminals. He warned that these criminals were bent on unleashing their criminal activities against unprotected communities in KZN.
Mchunu made this appeal during his and the KwaZulu-Natal top police management’s visit to the families of two police officers slain in the province this week and last week. Accompanied by Provincial Police Commissioner, Mammunye Ngobeni, Mchunu visited the families of Xolani Kwela in St Wendolins’ outside Pinetown, and of Gugulethu Ximba in Umlazi on Wednesday (18 July 2013) evening.
Student constable Xolani Kwela (26, stationed at Pinetown police station, and Sindisiwe Ngcobo (25), were apparently kidnapped from KwaNdengezi, near Pinetown, and their bullet-ridden bodies were found dumped near the road in Greytown.
In this case, two suspects, including a police officer, have been arrested and ammunition. Constable Gugulethu Ximba (33), attached to Port Security Services in Durban, was shot and fatally wounded while she was in her vehicle entering her home on Monday, 15 July 2013 at 18h30 at “J” Section in Umlazi.
She was rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Her service pistol was also taken during the shooting. She was shot four times and sustained two gunshot wounds to her neck, chest and right arm. Another policeman, the third one in KZN, Constable Musawenkosi Masuku who apparently died in a shootout between police officers at Manguzi, in the far northern KZN on Tuesday.
Mchunu, who visited the two Durban bereaved families to pay his respects, condemned the murder of police, saying it was a major set-back in the government’s bid to protect communities. “The loss of one policeman is a major set-back to the service and the whole nation. Policemen are a shield between us and the criminals.”
“Without policemen, criminals will have a field day and commit their callous activities at will. I wonder if the criminals (who killed these innocent officers) are aware of the damage they have inflicted to the nation,” said Mchunu. He said the way these police officers were brutally murdered made it even more painful.
