Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole has instructed Free State police to track down robbers who shot and killed a security guard carrying cash in Heidedal, Bloemfontein, on Monday. Colonel Athlenda Mathe from Sitole’s office said the police boss has ordered the province to implement a 72-hour activation plan and bring those responsible for the crime to book. “A manhunt is currently underway for a group of armed robbers following a cross pavement robbery that claimed the life of a G4S security official,” said Mathe in a statement. The incident occurred at around 11:45am in Heidedal while the…

Staff Reporter About 226 people spent the first day of the New Year behind bars after they were arrested for various crimes across the province, Free State police say. The arrests, according to provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Sam Makhele, are a result of multidisciplinary operations conducted from January 1-4. Police in the Free State accelerated their efforts to stamp out crime in the province over the first week of the New Year by arresting more than 226 people for various crimes. He said people were arrested for crimes ranging from murder, attempted murder, rape, assault with intent to inflict grievous…

Staff Reporter Two young women from Bloemfontein aged 20 and 24 years old have died after consuming a homemade alcoholic brew. A third one aged 23 is battling for life in the intensive care unit at Pelonomi Regional Hospital after drinking the same concoction said to be brewed with a hand sanitiser, among other things, to enhance its potency. Provincial health department spokesperson Mondli Mvambi told The Free Stater by telephone that the actual ingredients used to make the lethal brew are yet to be confirmed by a laboratory. “We don’t know what was in that concoction at the present…

Staff Reporter There was less activity in the emergency units of all hospitals in the Free State over the New Year’s holidays as a result of the nationwide night curfew and a ban on alcohol sales. “It was a quiet and peaceful New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day,” said Health MEC Montseng Tsiu in a statement. “We are usually up and about on the province’s five national roads that connect the six surrounding provinces and the kingdom of Lesotho. “As a province at the centre of the country we are usually at our busiest during these days and often…

Staff Reporter A 34-year-old man arrested on New Year’s Eve for the alleged rape of a 92-year-old woman in Kestell has been found hanging in police cells. The man, who is from Tlholong near Kestell, was found dead in a cell yesterday during a routine check at about 11am. He was expected to make his first court appearance on Monday. “The police at Kestell, during their routine hourly visits, came across a body of this . . . suspect who was found hanging in the police holding cells,” read part of a police statement. An inquest into the death has…

Staff Reporter A Phuthaditjhaba public order policing task team has bust an intricate plan by some people in the eastern Free State town to illegally transport alcohol in a funeral hearse to avoid detection by the police. Under the adjusted Level 3 regulations of the national lockdown, the sale of alcohol is not allowed as well its distribution and transportation until January 15. The ban is part of efforts by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The government has blamed the consumption of alcohol in restaurants, bars and taverns for contributing to the spread of the virus…

Staff Reporter At least 42 people have been arrested for illegally entering South Africa from Lesotho through an undesignated point. Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Sam Makhele said in a statement the suspects were rounded up by members of the Bethlehem Public Order Policing deployed at Ficksburg ports of entry. He said while patrolling the borderline and the ports of entry near Caledon River, the task team members noticed a group of people crossing the border from Lesotho illegally through the river using a tube. “Members kept observation and waited for them to cross into South African shores and arrested them,”…

A hijacked building can be classified as one that has been abandoned by the owner for a variety of reasons and then is taken over by the occupants or more often criminal syndicates. What are the causes of hijacked buildings? These buildings are almost always found in the centre of big cities in areas that are run down and crime-ridden. No property owner wants his/her building to be hijacked. It all starts from a small beginning, which is usually the non-payment of rent and services fees like water and electricity. This often happens in areas that are being run down…

After watching the world lurching from one catastrophe to another, we were tempted to turn this review into a eulogy grieving the death of a year that ripped our hearts out, shattered our dreams and shook our systems to the core. From battling a global health pandemic that afflicted more than a million people and took the lives of nearly 28 000 in South Africa alone to suffering an economic crisis that forced business closures and massive job losses, 2020 is surely going down in history as an annus horribilis whose impact will be felt for decades to come. Yet…

Staff Reporter Kroonstad and Heilbron police stations have been closed due to COVID-19 as the province battles a steady increase in cases of the deadly disease. Police say Kroonstad residents may access services from the old cluster offices on Klerk Street while the building undergoes decontamination. In Heilbron, the community will use the SAPS Hall within the premises of the police station. The Free State now has a cumulative total of 61 974 COVID-19 cases. The province currently has 5 217 active cases of this acute respiratory disease and at least 2 163 people have lost their lives. About 54…