'Task team to be set-up to tackle political killings'

A multidisciplinary team will be established to deal with the political killings in Mpumalanga, police minister Bheki Cele said on Monday.

Cele was speaking at the home of ANC councillor Sbonelo Mthembu who was shot dead with two other men on Friday at his home in Mkhondo, Mpumalanga.

Police would deal with the killings in Mpumalanga in the same way they did in KwaZulu-Natal.

“We have met the management of the police here. And we have identified gaps. Maybe the approaches we have used where there are political killings, like KZN, is the same approach we need to use. We need a multidisciplinary approach. It will not take long to resolve the cases,” Cele said.

During the visit, they established there were tensions in communities, apparently because the alleged perpetrators have not been arrested.

“Some of them are known. They have names. But ours, as the police, is not to come here and repeat the names. Ours is to come and put the faces to those names.”

Police would not be rushed into action that would not yield results.

“We are not going to do things the way that we are going to regret. Arrests should not be for withdrawal or acquittal. The investigating team should do thorough work which will give positive results,” Cele said.

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