Overview
- The intensified operations ran from 22 to 28 December under the Safer Festive Season campaign concurrent with Operation Shanela II.
- Arrests included 165 for murder, 118 for rape, 1,445 for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, 963 for illegal liquor trading, 1,603 for driving under the influence, 220 for drug dealing, and 104 for illegal firearm possession.
- Police confiscated 134 firearms, recovered 1,513 rounds of ammunition, and seized contraband valued at more than R5 million alongside the alcohol haul.
- Investigations yielded arrests in major cases, including two suspects in DJ Warras’s murder, eleven linked to the Bekkersdal tavern mass shooting, and one in the Saulsville mass killing as a manhunt continues for two more suspects.
- Further actions included arrests of suspected hitmen with weapons in KwaZulu-Natal, firearm-related arrests tied to the Masoyi case in Mpumalanga, and reinforced Western Cape anti-gang deployments with 450 new constables, with operations continuing through the festive period.