General Godfrey Lebeya bows out as Hawks head

Outgoing Hawks Head, General Godfrey Lebeya says he is leaving behind a capable team who are dedicated to combating major criminal syndicates in the country. Speaking at Montana north of Pretoria, on his service as the Hawks head from 2018 – 2025, Lebeya says over 19 000 people have been arrested with successful convictions.

General Lebeya has taken his final bow and stated the DPCI remains in capable hands. 

A country tarnished with misconceptions of genocide, while the high crime rate is still a major challenge law enforcement agents need to continuously tackle. General Lebeya states that, beyond the perception, crime in this country is still under control.

“The state President visited the United States. It is on a high level, and then the Minister of Police has actually produced as statistical results of how we are dealing with crime in South Africa, and we have indicated the areas where crime has been reduced, and intent on the areas where crime shall have increased, but overall, the crime is been reduced. And people should rest assured that the police are hard at work. Most of these activities that we are seeing, we are also seeing a lot of arrests that are being done.” 

General Lebeya states that the conviction rate under the Hawks investigations is testimony to the ongoing work of ridding the country of syndicates, which include cash-in-transit heists, drug and human trafficking, and illegal mining.

“The correctional services facilities are overflowing. On a weekly basis, the police will be briefing the public about the number of arrests that are affecting what they call Operation Shanella, which I think now they are in Shanella too. So, while there is a crime, which crime is happening in every other country, and in our situation, we are releasing these crime statistics, we are transparent, whereas in other jurisdictions, they are not doing that.” 

VIDEO : Hawks Head retires | Reflecting on crime fighting & it’s achievements

On gender-based violence (GBV) and cases like the death of Olorato Mongale, whose body was dumped at Lombardy West, north of Johannesburg, Lebeya has expressed confidence the SAPS are doing a great job in bringing those responsible to book.

“I’m confident that they have got the capacity. They have got the family violence and child protection and sexual offences unit. They also have organised crime, and they have crime intelligence. When you combine all of these skills, you will be able to find the perpetrator. What we would have loved is that they should be arrested before they committed the first crime. It’s unfortunate that they have committed a crime, but one can rest assured that whoever committed these crimes will be caught.” 

Deputy National Head, Siphesihle Nkosi will be acting as the National Head.