Cop killed for his service pistol
A police constable has been shot dead while sitting in his police car in front of his house.
|||Cape Town - A police constable has been shot dead while sitting in his police car in front of his house. Lindekile Sikade, 39, was wearing his police uniform when he was shot at about 6:15am in Hlosi Street, Philippi East.
His 9mm firearm was stolen.
The murdered officer was stationed at the Grassy Park detective branch.
JP Smith, the mayoral committee member for safety and security, said the modus operandi in this murder was nothing new – a firearm was all the motive criminals needed to kill an officer.
He said the prosecution rate in Cape Town, at only 2 percent, was not a big enough deterrent for criminals.
Another officer was shot and robbed of his gun outside his home in February.
“It’s really sad to hear that a family lost a police officer over something so insignificant,” Smith said.
“They will kill an officer for his cellphone because they have no regard for human life. We must make it so that nobody can ever consider attacking an officer, but we are losing officers left, right and centre.”
No arrests have been made and the official motive for the murder is still unknown.
Hawks spokesperson Lloyd Ramovha said the matter was under investigation and did not want to speculate about the motive.
“We are, however, disturbed that we lost a member cruelly.
“You kill a police officer, you touch the centre of government and we will not rest until we find those responsible for this murder,” Ramovha said.
Community Safety MEC Dan Plato echoed Smith’s comment: “The brazen attack in front of his house shows that whoever is responsible has no regard for the brave men and women in blue who work tirelessly to help keep our communities safe.
“We need a whole-of-society approach in order to do away with the notion that criminals can dare attack or kill a police officer.”
The Western Cape secretary of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, Mncedisi Mbolekwa, agreed.
“Enough is enough. We cannot allow police killings.”
He said union members would visit the victim’s family and friends.
“An attack on one police officer is an attack on us all,” Mbolekwa added.
* Anyone with information about the shooting can contact Warrant Officer Alfred Baker at 071 351 7464 or Crime Stop at 086 001 0111.
tara.longardner@inl.co.za
Cape Argus