The 44-year old Delen Grobler-Koonin, who was a member of the Directorate for Priority Crime’s Technical Operations Management Section (Toms), was stationed in Pretoria at the time of her tragic death. She and a second Hawks official, 42-year-old Wynand Herbst, were amongst the five fatalities reported from the incident last week Thursday in Mahikeng and Coligny respectively. Grobler-Koonin’s body was laid to rest at the Westpark Cemetery, following a funeral service that began in the morning. The service for Herbst will be held on Friday at the AGS Herlewingsentrum in Mayville on Friday.

Hawks national spokesperson, Hangwani Mulaudzi, says on Thursday an armed gang in three vehicles accosted a cash-in-transit vehicle in Mahikeng, North West, shooting at the van till it came to a halt. Explosives were then used to force the van open. It is then that the suspects encountered members of the Hawks. The vehicles sped off into different directions, but two ended up facing off with Grobler-Koonin and her colleagues in a bloody shootout that claimed the wife and mother’s life.

The suspects ultimately managed to flee the scene but were tracked down to various locations on the same day. The first suspect was found and arrested at a Johannesburg hospital, while three others were killed in an exchange of fire with police at a Coligny filling station. It is in this exchange that Herbst was fatally wounded. Two more suspects were traced to Ventersdorp but managed to escape.

In total four suspects were arrested and police recovered “three AK47s, two pistols, a bakkie and a minibus”.

The incident comes almost a month since Galeshewe ‘Lloyd’ Poonyane was gunned down and killed on Saturday 8 February 2020 as he and a female colleague, identified as Lydia Tladi, chased down a suspicious vehicle into Orkney in the North West where the former was killed, with the latter injured, in a shooting incident with the suspects. Four relatives whose ages range between 25 and 38 years of age, have since been arrested for the crime. It has been confirmed the family members are Lesotho nationals.

OFM News