Her comment follows the announcement by the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, during the State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Parliament on Thursday 13 February that the province’s anti-gang unit will be strengthened. In an exclusive interview with OFM News, she says the unit remains one of the SAPS’ biggest priorities given that gangs more often involve school pupils. Motswenyane says the police in the province will as their next step engage with the Department of Education and Social development.

This follows after SAPS had to deal with rife gang violence that terrorised residents in towns such as Welkom and Viljoenskroon, among others.

During Sona, Ramaphosa said “to improve the quality of general and specialised SAPS investigations, the government will establish a Crime Detection University in Hammanskraal,” Ramaphosa announced that 7,000 new police trainees have been enlisted country-wide in 2020 to strengthen local policing.

In 2019, the country saw about 5000 police trainees graduating, with 218 of those graduating from the province. This was celebrated at an event held at the Dr Rantlai Molemela stadium in Bloemfontein.

OFM News