Officers had received a tip-off that he was in the Johannesburg CBD, Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said.

Warrant Officer Samuel Mchizama, 50, and Constable Solly Maluleke, 40, were shot dead in Dobsonville, Soweto, last Wednesday afternoon. Their killers chased them in two VW Golf GTIs and shot them after they crashed head-on into a Mercedes-Benz.

They took their service pistols and a rape case docket they had in their car.

The two were attached to the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit.

Police shot dead two suspected members of the gang on the N3 near the De Hoek toll plaza near Heidelberg the following day.

Eyewitness News reported on Wednesday that one of the two men, Themba Tshabalala, was out on bail, despite being on trial for the murder of a policeman and an ATM bombing in North West in February last year, and armed robberies in Gauteng. A case of defeating the ends of justice was being investigated.