Hawks swoop in second quarter – 818 arrests, 301 convictions, recruits strengthen crime-fighting

In a media briefing on Sunday, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) — the crime-fighting unit known as the Hawks — detailed progress during the second quarter of financial year 2024/2025, with  818 arrests, 301 convictions and fresh recruits to strengthen crime-fighting efforts.

Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya, head of the DPCI, said “significant inroads” had been made in apprehending individuals involved in high-profile cases – there were 1194 arrests, convictions and attachment of assets during the second quarter.

 “These arrests targeted people involved in serious corruption, serious organised crime, serious commercial crime including fraud, theft, money laundering, police killings, cash-in-transit robberies, illegal mining, drug trafficking, damage to essential infrastructure and trafficking in endangered species,” Lebeya said. 

Of the 818 suspects that had been secured before various courts, Serious Organised Crime Investigation secured 489, Serious Commercial Crime Investigation secured 209 while Serious Corruption Investigation secured 120 suspects.

Gauteng saw the most arrests (192) over the second quarter. North West ranked second with 119, KwaZulu-Natal registered 115, Mpumalanga province had 114 and the Eastern Cape province 79.

Lebeya said that during these arrests, 84 firearms and 2,049 rounds of ammunition were seized, and seven clandestine drug laboratories valued at R17,405,374.90 were dismantled.   

During this period, the directorate secured 301 convictions, of which 285 received sentences while the rest were set to be sentenced on dates after the quarter under review.

Lebeya detailed 40 of these cases, representing just 3% of their successes, that related to organised crime police killings, endangered species theft by international crime syndicates, drug trafficking offences, illegal mining kingpins arrested by the Hawks, theft of Covid-19 relief funds and more.

Organised crime and police killings

Much focus was on police killings — 17 police officers were murdered, of whom 13 were off-duty. The situation has prompted the DPCI to classify police killings as a national priority offence. 

One of the cases was from June 2022, when seven-month-pregnant Constable Prudence Masuku of Daveyton SAPS in Benoni was murdered in Putfontein while on her way to work. Masuku was with her husband James Veli Masuku when it happened. Ballistic results and an investigation by the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation revealed that the service pistol belonging to Masuku was used to murder her.

According to James Masuku, they were confronted by the passengers of two taxis who approached them and began firing several shots at Prudence while he ran for cover. He said that upon returning to the vehicle he found that his wife’s service pistol was missing. 

Members of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation, Ekurhuleni Crime Intelligence and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) arrested Masuku and Xolani Lawrence Dlamini after receiving information about a suspect demanding cash from a “middleman” for the murder of the police officer. 

On 8 April 2024, Masuku and Dlamini, who pleaded not guilty, were convicted of murder, theft of a firearm, two counts of illegal possession of a firearm and defeating the administration of justice. 

On 23 August 2024, the Gauteng Division of the High Court sitting in Benoni sentenced Masuku and Dlamini to life imprisonment for murder. They were further sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for theft of a firearm, five years’ imprisonment for possession of an unlicensed firearm, and three years’ imprisonment for illegal possession of ammunition, which runs concurrently with the life imprisonment sentence. 

Another case highlighted was in the Eastern Cape, where the accused was convicted and sentenced in September 2024 to life imprisonment for the murder of Sergeant Mario Nell, and 57 years for kidnapping and the robbery of Nell’s service pistol.

Lebeya said that on 3 May 2023, Andile Nyoka went to the Motherwell court where he approached court orderly Nell and subsequently attacked him. Nyoka disarmed Nell and shot him with his service pistol. Then ran outside, hijacked a taxi and tried to flee the scene. He was arrested by the police and appeared at the Eastern Cape Local Division of the High Court sitting at Gheberha.

“There exists a blue wall in South Africa. A human wall formed by men and women in blue. The wall that divides and shields the good from the bad elements in society. The stronger the wall, the safer the community. The weaker the wall, the happier the criminals. Criminals will continuously attack this wall in order to access the protected good citizens of this, my beloved country. An attack on police officials is an assault on society and indeed attack on the State,” said Lebeya. 

International syndicates targeting South Africa’s endangered species

Drill-holes for radioactive pellets in the horn of a rhinoceros at a rhino orphanage in Mokopane, Limpopo. (Photographer: Cebisile Mbonani / Getty Images)

Drug trafficking in South Africa

Hawks boss Godfrey Lebeya says South Africans have to do more to discourage drug demand in the country. (Photo: EPA / Andreas Arnold)