Thriller or comedy caper?

TENSIONS RISE: JMPD OFFICERS ARRESTED BY SAPS WHILE RECOVERING STOLEN VEHICLE

- Sipho Mabena

A work by Venezuelan-US artist Alex Da Corte, Kermit the Frog, Even, is installed at Place Vendome in Paris on Sunday ahead of the opening of the Art Basel contemporary and modern art market.

(AFP)

In a scene more fitting for a crime thriller, South African Police Service (Saps) officers swooped in and arrested Johannesburg metro police department (JMPD) officers conducting an intelligence-driven stolen vehicle recovery operation in Bekkersdal, near Westonaria in Gauteng.

According to Johannesburg MMC for public safety Mgcini Tshwaku, the incident occurred on Friday when JMPD's tactical response unit and vehicle recovery unit were acting on intelligence about a suspected stolen vehicle linked to a notorious illegal mining syndicate kingpin in the West Rand.

He said this incident, which occurred during a legitimate vehicle recovery operation, underscored a disturbing pattern of interference and hostility that undermines collaborative law enforcement efforts in Gauteng and endangers public safety.

Tshwaku said the incident also exposed deeper rot in Saps, now under scrutiny by parliament's ad hoc committee and the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry probing claims of underworld interference and corruption made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

He said the team of seven JMPD officers had received credible intelligence information about the stolen vehicle and swiftly initiated the process of recovering the vehicle at the scene.