Glasgow: Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, together with high-ranking South African Police Service (SAPS) members, has attended the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) Annual General Assembly hosted in Glasgow, Scotland.

According to South African Government News Agency, the general assembly was a gathering of ‘chiefs of police and senior officials from around the world to collaborate and strengthen their efforts to combat transnational organised crime, cybercrime, counterfeit drug trafficking, as well as human trafficking’. The South African delegation included the Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (the Hawks), Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya; Deputy National Commissioner for Policing, Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili; Divisional Commissioner for Detective and Forensic Services, Lieutenant General Hilda Khosi Senthumule; the Minister’s special advisor, Advocate Vusi Pikoli; Head of Interpol NCB Pretoria, Brigadier Ntime Mokhine, and other senior officials.

The So
uth African delegation engaged in bilateral discussions with their counterparts from various countries on the sidelines of the Interpol General Assembly. The bilateral meetings were aimed at strengthening cooperation and operational strategies in the shared responsibility of fighting against transnational crime. During these exchanges, all parties acknowledged the significant challenges posed by narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, and organised criminal networks, and outlined specific areas of collaboration to combat these threats, with a core focus on creating a safer and crime-free society.

At the assembly, Mchunu met with Brazilian Justice and Public Security Minister Enrique Ricardo Lewandowski and his Vice Minister Datony Xu. They discussed the importance of real-time intelligence sharing to track and dismantle criminal networks across borders, as well as the urgent need to bolster cybercrime units in the fight against cybercrime. They also agreed to have joint training initiatives to build skills in are
as such as cybersecurity, digital forensics, and cyber intelligence.