Despite Nelson Mandela Bay police recovering 150 illegal firearms over the past three months, experts believe it is a drop in the ocean as there seems to be a constant flow of firearms into SA’s criminal underbelly.
Police minister Bheki Cele did not mince his words when delivering the eulogy in a hall full of police officers at the funeral service of slain court orderly Sergeant Mario Nel in Gqeberha on Friday.
With a bandaged arm and a blank expression, a 26-year-old suspect stood in the dock of the Motherwell magistrate’s court on Friday, just down from the corridor where he allegedly shot and killed a policeman with the officer’s own service pistol two days earlier.
A dark cloud hung over the Motherwell Magistrate’s Court as the men and women in blue broke down, and forensic services officials darted in and out of the building where moments earlier one of their own had been shot dead.
While the family of slain court orderly Sergeant Mario Nel battled to come to terms with his senseless murder on Wednesday, tributes to the fallen officer and messages of support continued to stream in on social media.