DRAMA unfolded during the arrest of two men believed to have been hired to assassinate politicians

The men were arrested in Polokwane yesterday and immediately displayed to the public. They were found in possession of an assortment of weapons, including guns and ammunition and pangas.

They also had police reflector jackets, handcuffs, torture machines and SANDF attire.

Police said three suspicious-looking men in a silver BMW sedan had initially followed a car driven by Capricorn district municipality executive mayor Lawrence Mapoulo on Tuesday night in Polokwane. Mapoulo alerted the police, who followed the car but it sped off.

The same car allegedly went to the house of ANC Youth League provincial secretary, Jacob Lebogo, in Flora Park, a suburb in Polokwane, where the occupants insisted on being allowed to enter under the pretence that they wanted to search for Nigerians staying there.

A security officer guarding Lebogo's house allegedly refused them permission and the men drove away.

Police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the men were at all times clad in police uniforms and pretended to be officers. He said they traced the car in which the men were travelling but could not find it on Tuesday night.

"We caught up with the car in the city centre (yesterday) and stopped it. One of the occupants fled and we managed to arrest two of them," Mulaudzi said.

The arrested suspects were found to be law-enforcement officers.

"One of them is a constable attached to the OR Tambo International Airport, while the other is a member of the SANDF based in Centurion," he said.

The search for the third man was still on.

"We are investigating further to check if we cannot link the men with several other crimes in the province," Mulaudzi said.

Meanwhile, the arrests have instilled fear in politicians.

ANCYL provincial chairperson Frans Moswane said they felt unsafe but were happy with the arrests.

"And we cannot divorce the arrests from the political situation in the province."