A search is under way for the killers of a Port Elizabeth policeman, who was forced off the road and shot in the head on Wednesday.
National police commissioner General Khehla John Sitole condemned the ongoing attacks on police officers and ordered on Thursday that the killers of Detective-Constable Mthetheleli Mamana, 36, be brought to book.
Sitole instructed that a 72hour activation plan be implemented, including the mobilising of crime intelligence and other policing units.
Insiders confirmed that the provincial organised crime unit – which answers directly to provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga’s office – had taken over the case.
The body of Mamana – whose wife is also a detective, but is on maternity leave – was found just a few metres from his unmarked police car in Draaifontein Road, Greenbushes, at about 1.30pm on Wednesday.
He had sent out a frantic distress call by police radio to his colleagues after he realised he was being tailed.
He said his vehicle had been forced off the road.
Mamana was shot in the head and left lying in the bushes – about 2m from his car – at the roadside.
The keys were still in the ignition and it appeared that Mamana had jumped out to take cover in the bushes.
Police said nothing appeared to have been stolen. His state firearm was at the scene.
Sitole said: “The killing of the constable must be condemned in the strongest way possible by all sectors of society.”