Untitled - Saps

• The Anti-terrorism Training Programme was launched at the Hammanskraal Training
College in May. Counter-terrorism skills such as intelligence gathering and the prevention
of, reaction to, and analyzing of and identifying acts of terrorism form part of the
curriculum.
• In July, 1,5 ton of abalone, the biggest haul yet in the Eastern Cape, was confiscated
during a raid at a smallholding near Port Elizabeth.
• Several drug busts in Gauteng between the end of June and mid-July resulted in drugs
with a street value of some R546 million being seized.
• In July, drugs with a street value of more than R750 million were destroyed on the East
Rand.
• The SAPS Women’s Network was launched in July to assist and support women in the
service. The network would run at station, provincial and national levels.
• SAPS celebrated Women’s Day in August by conducting roadblocks and handing out
flowers to women drivers.
• Friday, 13 August turned out to be an unlucky day for two groups of cash-in-transit heist
robbers planning attacks not far from each other in North West. In two separate incidents
heists were foiled by members of the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit supported by the
Special Task Force in one incident and by the National Intervention Unit in the other.
• Illegal drugs and substances used in making them with an estimated street value of more
than R2,5 billion were seized between July and September 2004.
• A community policing forum was officially launched at the Cape Town International
Airport in October. The forum was launched because of the need to join hands between
the airport community and the police in order to address crime-related challenges within
the airport precinct.
• A new era of crime prevention was heralded when all stations in Soweto received new
roadblock trailers equipped with the latest hi-tech equipment. A mobile joint operational
centre, situated in a large trailer, was also handed over to the area crime prevention unit.
The trailer is equipped with cameras, television and laptops.
• A special task team set up to combat bank robberies and cash-in-transit heists managed
to almost halve the number of incidents in Gauteng in two years.
• Thousands of counterfeit DVDs, worth more than R83 million, were confiscated at
Durban International Airport between April and October 2004.
• A lethal arsenal of missiles, anti-tank rockets, machine guns, ammunition and landmines
were blown up during a combined South African and Mozambican police operation in
October.
• The suspected leader of one of the country’s biggest crime syndicates was taken into
custody in October in the Cape after the SAPS systematically exposed the network. He
was suspected to be the leader of a syndicate involved in drug and abalone smuggling,
gang violence, murder and the Chinese mafia.
• More than 1,5 tons of frozen abalone was seized at the Lebombo border post between
Mpumalanga and Mozambique in October. With a street value of more than R1,5
million, it was the biggest of four perlemoen busts in the past two years.
• In 2004, on instruction from National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, the Special Task
Force was open to women. Of the 34 women who applied at the beginning of the year,
29 made it through Operation Vasbyt. Five completed the last leg – alongside 14 men.
• In November, the French government pledged R10 million to help the SAPS fight
transnational crime and terrorism. This was announced at the conclusion of the first
joint co-operation programme, which started in 2001.
• The last man wanted after an R11 million heist at Rennies Bank in Sandton in 2003 was
arrested in Soweto in November.
• In November, the anti-hijacking team recovered R1,5 million worth of stolen goods on a
farm near Pretoria.
• In November, two men were arrested and dagga worth at least R3,8 million confiscated
at a Lesotho border post.
• The Firearms Control Act, (Act 60 of 2000) was implemented. In December Safety
and Security Minister Charles Nqakula announced a Firearms Amnesty from January
to March 2005 - making it possible for persons illegally in possession of firearms to hand
them in without being prosecuted.
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