South Africa has made significant progress in cracking down on and curbing priority crimes in the country, a senior official has said.
JOHANNESBURG, June 29 (Xinhua) -- South Africa has made significant progress in cracking down on and curbing priority crimes in the country, a senior official said Friday.
National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) Godfrey Lebeya cited recent arrests and convictions as evidence of the progress.
Briefing the media in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, on the progress achieved during the fourth and last quarter of the financial year 2023/2024, Lebeya said great strides had been made in tackling some of the country's serious crimes.
"The DPCI has made significant inroads in apprehending individuals involved in high-profile cases, thus ensuring accountability and justice for the victims," he said.
The DPCI, also known as Hawks in South Africa, is mandated to prevent, combat and investigate national priority offenses, focusing on serious organized and commercial crimes and serious corruption.
Lebeya said 547 suspects representing 526 natural persons and 21 juristic persons were secured before the country's various courts.
"Of these natural persons, 421, which is 80 percent, are South Africans while 105, which is 20 percent, are foreign nationals," Lebeya said, adding that fraud contributed the most to the arrests made in the financial quarter.
He also stated that 182 convictions, including seven juristic persons, were secured. Among these, 84 convictions were related to serious organized crime, 61 to serious commercial crime, and 37 to serious corruption. "Of these convicts, 120 are South Africans, while 55, which represents 30 percent, are foreign nationals," he noted.
Meanwhile, 736 firearms, 1,159 ammunition and 69 explosives were seized, according to him.
Lebeya revealed that 22 police officials -- 17 off duty, five on duty -- were murdered during the period. He also said that, in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, the DPCI was successfully disrupting criminal networks operating in the country.
According to him, drugs valued at 47,224,231 rand (about 2.59 million U.S. dollars) were seized and a total of 68 suspects were arrested during the period. ■