Gun battle leaves eight dead in outskirts of Johannesburg

Bloomberg

A shootout between suspected robbers and police on the outskirts of Johannesburg’s city centre left eight people dead, Police Minister Minister Bheki Cele said.
Police opened fire on several gunmen in Rosettenville who were planning to attack a truck ferrying cash in South Africa’s commercial hub, Cele said in an interview broadcast on eNCA television. Eight of the gunmen, some of whom were armed with automatic assault rifles, were killed and eight others were arrested, he said.
Thieves regularly target armored trucks transporting cash to banks in South
Africa, often using automatic weapons and explosives to access the money in the vehicles.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has faced calls by opposition parties to fire Cele over the police force’s inability to deal effectively with rampant crime in a country where more than 60 people are murdered daily. Ramaphosa last year warned the national police commissioner, Khehla Sitole, that he’s considering a probe into the head of the forces’ fitness to hold office.
The South African Police Service held a spiritual crime prevention summit with the introductory speaker suggesting the events were the work of the devil and saying that
the riots in July, which
left 354 people dead, were indicative of spiritual warfare. This even as South Africa is
a secular state with freedom
of religion enshrined in its constitution.
While the intervention of spiritual crime prevention is not separate from the police’s mandate, it is a second way to approach crime, Major General Thokozani Mathonsi said later. All faith and spiritual leaders were asked to be part of the process.