Hawks boss Godfrey Lebeya. (Supplied/GCIS)
- The Hawks briefed the media regarding the first quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year.
- There were 18 arrests related to the killing of police officers.
- One person was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of an off-duty metro police officer.
The Hawks made 18 arrests related to the murders of 21 police officers during the first quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year.
Briefing the media on Sunday, Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya said 16 officers were killed while off-duty, and five on-duty.
“An attack on a police official is an act of undermining the authority of the state,” said Lebeya.
“Eighteen arrests were effected, of which nine were on the 21 cases reported for the period, and nine related to eight cases registered prior to the 1st quarter.”
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Lebeya said 12 people were convicted on four of the cases and they were sentenced to a combined period of 139 years and six months in jail.
One was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a metro police officer, Constable Nkosinathi Hamilton Ndlovu, 57.
Ndlovu was shot and killed at Glebelands Hostel, in Umlazi, on 6 June 2022.
He was off-duty when he was robbed of his service pistol by two unknown men, and subsequently killed.
On 12 April 2024, the KwaZulu-Natal Local Division of the High Court sitting in Durban sentenced Siphakamiso Jeffrey Sosibo, 31, to life imprisonment for Ndlovu’s murder, as well as 15 years’ imprisonment for robbery with aggravating circumstances, 15 years’ imprisonment for unlawful possession of a firearm, and five years’ imprisonment for possession of ammunition.
