Municipality acquires armoured vehicles

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The next instalment in the Mossel Bay Municipality's strategic plan to enhance community safety was rolled out this week with the launch of two armoured personnel carrier vehicles and a response unit.

The vehicles will be used in the prevention of illegal land occupation and offer assistance and protection to municipal staff in infrastructure services, especially the Electricity Department, during removal of illegal electricity connections.

They will also be used in the municipality's newly established K9 dog unit and provide support to the police's Public Order Policing Unit, where crowd control is needed.

In such cases, the unit will operate strictly under the supervision and command of the police.

The launch was held at the Mossel Bay Town Hall on Wednesday, 12 July, with Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and Minister of Community Safety and Police Oversight, Reagen Allen, present.

The launch comes less than a year after the Joint Operations Centre was opened on 16 August 2022. This centre provides a nodal point for an integrated approach to incident management through strategic partnerships with other stakeholders in community safety.

The armoured vehicles were supplied by a South African manufacturer, SVI Engineering. The MAX 3 Troopy can accommodate eight passengers, driver included.

With a 4.5 V8 Toyota Land Cruiser engine, the hull replaces the standard Land Cruiser body and is manufactured from the highest quality ballistic materials to give optimal ballistic and blast protection.

The vehicle is also equipped with an anti-riot scraper, hydraulically operated, enabling it to remove obstacles from road surfaces. Fully 4x4, the vehicles allow access to hard-to-reach environments and have been designed to be particularly manoeuvrable in rough terrain.

Municipal spokesperson Cornelle Carstens says the response unit and launch of the armoured personnel carriers fit into the council's greater vision to enhance community safety. "The Council adopted the GROW strategy it they came into office in 2021. Growing community safety ultimately creates an ideal environment for economic growth."

Memorandums of understanding are in place with other municipalities for the response unit to support them when needed.

The municipality's K9 unit, soon to be launched officially, has been funded by the Western Cape Government. The unit consists of four Belgian Malinois dogs, trained for personal protection and patrol, as well as for sniffing out narcotics, endangered species and ammunition.

The two MAX 3 Troopy vehicles and members of the response unit.