Two Mthatha police officers shot dead at Libode spaza shop, 72-hour plan activated
The two officers answered a call for help at a shop in Ziphunzana Location and were found with gunshot wounds, their service pistols missing.
Two Eastern Cape police officers were shot and killed in the early hours of Friday while answering a call for help at a spaza shop in Ziphunzana Location, Libode, near Mthatha.
The officers, aged 51 and 30, were members of the Mthatha National Intervention Unit and the Mthatha Public Order Policing Unit. Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Nobuntu Gantana said police had received a report that armed suspects were attacking the shop and demanding money from the operator. The two officers responded and were later found with gunshot wounds. Their service pistols were missing.
As IOL reported on Friday, the killings happened at a spaza shop in Ziphunzana Location. A cordless grinder, believed to have been used to cut through the shop’s burglar door, was found at the scene.
What the dockets say
Police are investigating two counts of murder, two counts of attacking police, two counts of robbery of police firearms and one count of attempted business robbery.
A multidisciplinary team has been deployed to the scene, and a 72-hour plan has been activated to trace and arrest the suspects. Preliminary intelligence is being followed up, Gantana said. The names of the deceased officers will be released once their next of kin have been notified.
Eastern Cape Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Vuyisile Ncata condemned the killings.
“The brutal murder of our members is an attack on the state, and we will not rest until those responsible are arrested and prosecuted,” Ncata said.
He sent condolences to their families and colleagues, and said the service would support them.
Why the 72-hour plan matters here
The 72-hour activation plan is the standard South African Police Service response to a serious and violent crime, and it is the mechanism that has produced arrests in a string of cases in recent years. It puts detectives, crime intelligence, visible policing and specialist units on one clock, with the first three days treated as the window in which leads are warmest and suspects are most likely to be found.
For a rural district like OR Tambo, that clock matters more than it does in the metros. Libode sits in one of the poorest parts of the Eastern Cape, where police stations are thinly staffed, where the nearest specialist units are based in Mthatha, and where a response call can mean a long drive on a bad road before an officer reaches the scene. The National Intervention Unit and Public Order Policing members who answered this call were not the local station’s general duty officers. They were the units the district draws on when a call is assessed as dangerous, and they were armed with service pistols, which are now the subject of their own robbery docket.
What the state has done
The provincial commissioner has assigned the case to a multidisciplinary team and activated the 72-hour plan. Police have asked anyone with information to contact their nearest police station or Crime Stop on 08600 10111, or to submit information through the MySAPS app. Police said all information would be treated confidentially.
What happens next
Police have not named any suspects and have not said whether anyone has been arrested. The investigation into the two murders, the attacks on the officers and the theft of their firearms is continuing under the 72-hour plan.
Source: IOL, JUST IN | Two Eastern Cape police officers shot dead responding to spaza shop attack
