PORT ELIZABETH - ELITE NEW UNITS PROMISE TO TACKLE GANGS AND DRUGS IN NORTHERN AREAS AND EASTERN CAPE

Arms dealers in Buffalo City Metro and Mthatha, and drug gangs in the northern parts of Port Elizabeth will be targeted by two new elite crime fighting units being introduced this year.

The units will be called the South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau (Saneb) and the Illegal Firearms Control and Priority Violent Crime unit.

They will be incorporated into the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation, commonly known as the Hawks, and will be led by Lieutenant-General Mthandazo Ntlemeza. In the Eastern Cape, the new units will report to Major-General Nyameko Nogwanya and will focus on the drug wars in Nelson Mandela Bay areas and illegal firearms in townships surrounding BCM and Mthatha.

Ntlemeza has already started consulting with Nogwanya to source and identify experienced and capable police officers for the elite units.

They are likely to come from SAPS criminal investigation divisions throughout the province.

The units will be complemented by staff with a special focus on administration, negotiations, surveillance, fieldwork, investigation and combat.

National Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the units were being established to enhance the fight against illicit drugs and firearms.

“The Narcotics Enforcement Bureau will add more venom to our fight against drugs.

“The National Bureau for Illegal Firearms will, on the other hand, bring the illegal possession, irresponsible use of firearms as well as all violent crimes to an abrupt stop,” Mulaudzi said.

Speaking to the Saturday Dispatch this week, spokesman for the minister of police Musa Zondi said: “Experience will be important, so we will attempt to build capacity while imparting experience to new recruits.”

He said police were currently dealing with these three crime categories in the same way they were dealing with all general crime.

“The difference is that now they will specialise which means building a unique body of experience and expertise,” Zondi said.

Senior Researcher at the Institute of Security Studies Dr Johan Burger said: “We welcome the announcement of these two units given the fact that last year we published a paper on specialised units within the police in which we called for the introduction of some of those units closed down under Jackie Selebi when he was national police commissioner.”

“One of them was the specialised narcotics unit. It was very similar to this new South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau,” Burger said.

“We are happy that at least there is some progress in re-establishing some of the specialised units that were closed down,” said Burger.

VIA - dispatchlive.co.za