A police officer with 32 years’ service died after being shot in the head outside a tavern in Mfuleni, Cape Town, on Sunday night.

His partner, a constable, is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the neck.

National police spokesperson Brig Vishnu Naidoo said on Monday the two officers were on patrol around 10pm when they confronted a suspect outside a tavern in Diepwater, Wesbank.

They were both shot by the suspect.

“The warrant officer, 52, was shot in the head and succumbed to his wound an hour later in hospital while the constable, 32, who was shot in the neck, is in hospital in a critical condition,” Naidoo said.

National police commissioner Gen Khehla John Sitole ordered that a 72-hour activation plan be mobilised in an effort to arrest the suspect.

"I tasked the acting provincial commissioner of the Western Cape to mobilise crime intelligence, the Hawks, forensics and detectives as part of the 72-hour activation plan to arrest the suspect", said Sitole.

Just four days earlier, two Cape Town law enforcement officers died after being shot for their firearms last Wednesday.

The officers, aged 54 and 49, were doing protection duty for municipal contractors near Sweet Home Farm in Philippi when suspects approached their marked vehicle and fired at them through the windows before stealing their guns.