South Africa: Weekend of Bloodshed Sees Protection Officer Killed in Mass Shooting and Policewoman Found Murdered

@SAPoliceService / Twitter
The late Lindela Mraqisa, warrant officer, who had served as a close protector to Police Deputy Minister Cassel Mathale since 2019.
2 October 2023
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Vincent Cruywagen and Chuma Nontsele

The South African Police Services experienced a weekend of tragedy, with two officers slain in separate incidents in the Western Cape.

Warrant Officer Lindela Mraqisa, a member of the Western Cape's Protection and Security Service (PPS) division who served as a close protector of Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, was one of five people killed during a mass shooting in Gugulethu, in Cape Town.

In a separate incident, Western Cape Police confirmed that the body of a 29-year-old policewoman was found in Malgas camp, Extension 4, Mfuleni in the early hours of Sunday morning. The officer attached to Samora Machel SAPS had allegedly been out with a friend visiting acquaintances in the area when the incident happened.

Police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut said that a 30-year-old suspect was subsequently arrested by Mfuleni police.

The officer has not yet been named publicly.

"Further investigations about the circumstances that led to her death including the possibility that she was raped, are the subject of an investigation that has since been undertaken by the Western Cape DPCI (Hawks) investigators," said Traut.

Regarding the Gugulethu massacre, the Western Cape Serious Violent Crimes (SVC) unit is probing the deaths of the officer, three other men and a woman who were shot and killed.

On Sunday, Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale sent his condolences...

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