A cop and his colleague were gunned down while searching for a wanted suspect on Sunday in Wesbank.
Warrant Officer Hilton Joseph, 52, died of a gunshot wound to the head, while Constable Terence Mostert, 29, was shot in the neck and face.
The two had gone to a tavern in Diepwater Street just after 10pm on Sunday.
Joseph was rushed to Tygerberg Hospital where he later passed away.
Mostert is currently in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
Both men were stationed at Mfuleni Police Station.
It’s understood the two were hot on the heels of a suspect following a double murder in Delft on Saturday.
National police spokesperson, Brigadier Vish Naidu, confirms the incident and says a manhunt has been launched for the killers.
He says Joseph was a 52-year-old warrant officer with 32 years’ service under his belt, while Mostert, a 29-year-old constable, had only been a cop for three years.
National Commissioner of Police, General Khehla John Sitole, has ordered a 72-hour Activation Plan in an effort to bring the suspect or suspects to book.
“I, on being briefed, tasked the Acting Provincial Commissioner of the Western Cape to mobilise Crime Intelligence, the [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, better known as the] Hawks, forensics and detectives as part of the 72-hour Activation Plan to arrest the suspect,” Sitole said on Monday.
Delft Community Policing Forum chairperson, Pastor Charles George, urged cops to arrest the suspects as a matter of urgency.
“We are deeply saddened and we are highly upset,” Pastor George says.
“The killing of our police officials also reduces the numbers at our stations.
“We are losing our staff who is there to keep the community safe.”
SCENE: Diepwater Street, Wesbank
Joseph is the fourth officer to be killed in the space of a week.
On Sunday, Constable Leyden Finger, 28, of Delft Police Station was off-duty when he and a friend were confronted by two skelms in Albert Philander Street in the Conifers, Eerste River, who tried to rob them.
The men were walking home at the time of the incident and Leyden had apparently tried to fight off the skelms and was stabbed.
Last Wednesday, cops nabbed four men, aged 19 to 33, and a woman within hours of Parow Law Enforcement officers Jannie Nieuwenhuys, 54, and his colleague, Simthembile Nyangiwe, 49, being shot and killed and robbed of their firearms in Philippi, where they were escorting a construction crew.