Anti-gang unit busts high-profile gang leaders, Cele says
29 November 2018
The Anti-Gang Unit is on a roll since its deployment in the Western Cape, Police Minister Bheki Cele claimed on Thursday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa officially launched the unit in Hanover Park on November 2, after the release of the crime statistics earlier this year.
Since then, the unit has arrested a number of "high-flying gangsters", Cele said.
These arrests include alleged 28s gang leader Ralph Stanfield and six members of the Fancy Boys gang for the possession of illegal firearms.
In total, the Anti-Gang Unit has made 119 arrests and at least 10 investigations have been opened for crimes related to the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca).
Around 266 gang strongholds have also been infiltrated by the unit.
"SAPS is coming up with new and unconventional ways to combat crime within the ambit of the law," Cele said.
"The objective is to create a new normal, where children are allowed to be children, where women are respected."
Stanfield was one of the underworld figures present at the funeral of murdered Cape Town attorney Pete Mihalik earlier this month.
He was a pallbearer at the St Mary's Cathedral service, while Colin Booysen – brother of alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome "Donkie" Booysen – also attended.
Mihalik previously represented both of them.
Mihalik was assassinated while doing the school run around 07:30 on October 30, outside his children's Reddam House Atlantic Seaboard school in Green Point, Cape Town.
