Two unidentified men fired several shots at Sergeant Mdlalo when he came to the front door of his Mitchells Plain home.
|||Cape Town - Police Sergeant Bafundi Mdlalo, 34, was gunned down in his Mitchells Plain home on Monday night and died in front of his wife - making him the seventh police officer murdered in the province this month.
Four of those murders have occurred around Cape Town since last week.
Two men arrived at Mdlalo’s house in Viola Close, in Montclair in Mitchells Plain, on Monday night and told his wife that they wanted to see him, said police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana.
The unidentified men fired several shots at Mdlalo when he came to the front door. He died in his house, in front of his wife, a neighbour said.
Kinana said the men entered the house and demanded access to the safe which contained a firearm. They stole the weapon and cellphones.
It is unclear if the firearm was Mdlalo’s service pistol or his own personal weapon.
The attackers fled the house on foot, said Kinana. “No arrests have been made at this stage,” Kinana said.
Mdlalo was the father of an 11-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.
Mdlalo had been stationed at the Phillipi East police station.
On Tuesday morning a neighbour and friend of the Mdlalo family took in his grieving wife and children.
Mdlalo’s wife entered the neighbour’s house in tears at mid-morning, after seeing a doctor.
She was unable to speak to the Cape Argus, but the neighbour described Mdlalo as a loving husband, a jovial friend and a police officer who was committed to his role as a “servant and protector of the public”.
The woman, who asked not to be named, fearful that the attackers could return, said Mdlalo had been shot at the front door and stumbled to his bedroom where he died in front of her.
Forensic pathologists removed Mdlalo’s body this morning. At 10am there were still several police officers on the scene.
Meanwhile provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Arno Lamoer has, for the fourth time within the space of a week, sent “heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and colleagues” of another deceased police officer.
Lamoer said this was the largest number of police officers killed in a single month in his tenure as commissioner.
“An attack on the police is an attack on society. Our efforts to serve and protect our communities will not be deterred by cold-blooded and heartless criminals.
“We will not be side-tracked by the criminal elements operating within our communities, and the police will not sleep until the culprits are brought to book.”
Asked whether the murders could be linked in any way, Lamoer said: “No murder was coincidental,” but added that the motives for the killings were not yet known, and investigations were ongoing.
“All of these murders have been targeted, direct, attacks against our officers. It is incredibly concerning,” Lamoer said.
Anyone with information about the incident or the suspects is asked to call 086 00 10 111 or to go to their nearest police station, police asked.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus
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