Call for probe of ‘stolen’ guns
‘Police officers should be held accountable for losing firearms’
THE Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) has been called on to investigate the escalating numbers of guns being “lost” by police officers.
According to replies to questions tabled in Parliament by the DA, more than 14 000 have been lost or stolen countrywide over the past 10 years.
Latest figures show 567 were lost or stolen in Kwazulu-natal between 2014 and 2017.
According to the response from KZN MEC for Community Safety and Liaison, Mxolisi Kaunda, 478 service weapons were stolen and 89 lost during this period, with only one officer properly held to account. This was despite 34 internal SAPS investigations having been concluded. The reply states that 43 disciplinary inquiries are ongoing.
But the The DA’S Kwazulunatal spokesperson on Community Safety and Liaison, Dr Rishigen Viranna, does not believe enough is being done to hold police officers to account. He said this was due to a “care less” attitude within the ranks.
The DA’S deputy shadow minister of police, Dianne Kohler Barnard agreed. “We seldom hear of a police officer being fired for losing a gun. They always end up saying: ‘Oh, I was held up and my gun was stolen.’ But in how many cases, were these guns actually sold by corrupt policemen?
“Countrywide, it’s too easy to get guns from the police. I have put through endless questions to Parliament asking whether there are serial offenders at work – police who routinely ‘lose’ a firearm, but have never had a single answer. This issue needs to be thoroughly investigated by Ipid.”
Kohler Barnard believes there have also been cases of criminals on trial – whose convictions are dependent on weapons being linked to crimes – having paid as much as R500 000 to corrupt policemen to make these weapons disappear from SAPS 13 stores, where evidence firearms are kept.
“There are firearms disappearing from the stores. These firearms are needed to secure convictions,” she said.
Kohler Barnard also referred to an ongoing case in the Western Cape where vast numbers of firearms handed in to the police for destruction – as part of the SAPS gun amnesty process – have been sold off to gangs.
Sold
From the first amnesty when people were invited to hand in guns for destruction, stories began surfacing that not all were being destroyed.
“Many people were not even given receipts. The police officer would just scrawl something down on a piece of paper. The person would then walk off. The gun probably went into the policeman’s pocket, later to be sold. It’s money for jam. Firearms are big money.
“This has been proven in the Western Cape, but I believe it’s happening everywhere,” Kohler Barnard said.
“We’ve heard stories of police kicking down doors and pointing firearms at little old ladies, saying the firearm of their late husband’s had been found at the scene of a heist, or bank robbery. These were guns handed in for destruction.”
The SAPS response to the DA’S latest parliamentary questions about the loss of police firearms in KZN reveals that the station which lost the most firearms in the past three years is umkomaas. Durban Central has the highest number stolen from SAPS members.
Viranna has announced that a fact-finding delegation will conduct oversight visits to both these SAPS stations to establish what is being done to curb the problem.
“KZN’S people deserve to live in an environment where they are not afraid in their own homes, where children can go to school and play in parks without being harmed and where businesses can grow and create the jobs that are so desperately needed,” he said.
“The DA is committed to fighting for this future. Any police officer found guilty of wrongdoing when it comes to (the loss of) a service weapon must be held to account.”