{"id":96168,"date":"2025-03-18T13:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T11:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=96168"},"modified":"2025-03-18T13:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T11:09:14","slug":"operation-shanela-over-15-000-suspects-arrested-in-one-week-across-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/operation-shanela-over-15-000-suspects-arrested-in-one-week-across-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Shanela: Over 15 000 suspects arrested in one week across South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n18 March 2025 | 13:08 CAT
\n2-minute read<\/p>\n

\"\"

SAPS\/Facebook<\/p><\/div>\n

The South African Police Service\u2019s Operation Shanela has led to the arrest of over 15\u00a0000 suspects across the country in just one week. Suspects were arrested for various serious crimes, including murder, rape, assault, drug possession and dealing, illegal firearm possession and drunk driving.<\/p>\n

Operation Shanela is a high-density law enforcement project that the Provincial Commissioner of each province leads. It includes tracking operations, roadblocks, high visibility patrols, \u2018stop and search\u2019 operations as well as tracing wanted suspects.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> on Radio Islam International, police spokesperson for the SAPS Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mukhathi attributed the success to police officers\u2019 commitment and hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous week, we arrested 14\u00a0165 suspects. And this week, we arrested 15\u00a0505 suspects. It\u2019s because as police officers, we are going out, we are hard working to ensure that we go after criminals, those who [have committed] serious crimes,\u201d Mukhathi said.<\/p>\n

The arrests are resultant of rigorous police investigation and detective work. The police join forces with various stakeholders including local metros, governmental institutions and community members, to gather information before making arrests. Mukhathi highlighted the integral role the community plays in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking together with the community is one of the ingredients to make sure that this operation is a success. Without the community, we were not able to arrest these suspects.\u00a0Partnership between police and the community members is very, very crucial in the sense that\u00a0they keep us, they give us information, so that we arrest suspects, those who have committed\u00a0crime against the state and against a victim,\u201d Mukhathi said.<\/p>\n

While the high number of arrests is a commendable achievement, concerns remain that criminals re-enter society after a limited period of detention due to persistently low conviction rates in South Africa and the lack of successful prosecutions. Mukhathi dispelled these concerns, explaining that the SAPS present the court with strong, watertight cases to ensure suspects receive the appropriate sentences.<\/p>\n

The SAPS has stepped up efforts to combat the ongoing rise in kidnappings in the country, which are often resultant of collaborative international organised crime efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis month, we had a transnational workshop where we were tightening the issues of dealing with transnational crimes and also including kidnapping so that we\u2019ll be able to work with Interpol [as well as] other countries to keep this kind of crime [in check] andto ensure we brought to book those who are involved,\u201d Mukhathi said.<\/p>\n

The SAPS also has a designated anti-kidnapping task team to aid in combatting the scourge. Mukhathi said the rescue of Portuguese and Ethiopian businessmen last week is evidence that the SAPS prioritises the prevention of kidnapping.<\/p>\n

Listen <\/strong>to the full interview<\/a> on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Junaid Kharsany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za 18 March 2025 | 13:08 CAT 2-minute read The South African Police Service\u2019s Operation Shanela has led to the arrest of over 15\u00a0000 suspects across the country in just one week. Suspects were arrested for various serious crimes, including murder, rape, assault, drug possession and dealing, illegal firearm possession and drunk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":96181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/operation-shanela.jpeg?fit=287%2C175&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-p16","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 14:58:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}