STELLALANDER - KURUMAN: North West’s Acting Provincial Commissioner, Major General Patrick Asaneng, has commended the swift and decisive action by Ventersdorp police that led to the arrest of three armed suspects in the early hours of Thursday, 3 July 2025.
The trio, aged 27, 40 and 45, are expected to appear in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court on charges of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition. The arrests followed a routine patrol by visible policing officers near the N14 and R30 intersection outside Ventersdorp. At approximately 01:30, officers pulled over a suspicious white Nissan Micra. Two men fled the vehicle on foot, while the remaining three, including two Zimbabwean nationals, were detained on the scene. A thorough search led to the discovery of a rifle with an obliterated serial number, two pistols, and 18 rounds of ammunition.
The suspects were unable to produce licenses or any legal justification for being in possession of the weapons, prompting their immediate arrest. Further investigation revealed that two of the seized firearms were linked to armed robbery cases reported in Soshanguve and Diepsloot earlier this year. Police also confirmed that the vehicle matched the description of one used in a business robbery committed in Kuruman, Northern Cape, just a day earlier on Wednesday, 2 July 2025. “This arrest highlights the exceptional vigilance of our officers,” said Major General Asaneng. “The suspects were intercepted over 500 kilometres from their previous crime scene, en route to Gauteng. This underscores the fact that criminal activity knows no provincial boundaries, but also that our efforts to dismantle these syndicates will not stop at any border.”
