Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

2-minute read
08 March 2023 | 19:15 CAT

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Gun Free South Africa is instituting a class action against the SAPS for deaths and injuries allegedly resulting from corrupt and negligent firearms management. The organisation says it has given notice to Police Minister Bheki Cele of class action proceedings in which damages will be sought from the Minister arising from deaths and injuries due to the actions of specifically senior police officials Christiaan Prinsloo and David Naidoo.

Senior SAPS member Colonel Christiaan Prinsloo confessed to selling over 2 000 guns in police stores to gang leaders on the Cape Flats.

Recently released on parole after serving a short stint of an 18-year sentence, Prinsloo was convicted and sentenced in 2016 on 20 charges ranging from racketeering, corruption and money laundering relating to the smuggling and dealing in lethal weapons worth around R9 million with Cape Town gangsters.

GFSA, in a statement, said: “Prinsloo was assisted in his criminal enterprise by his colleague, Colonel David Charles Naidoo. As of 2016, SAPS records that ‘Prinsloo’s guns’ have been used in at least 1,066 murders: 187 children were killed by criminals using a ‘Prinsloo gun’.

Speaking to Radio Islam International, the organisation’s Director, Adele Kirsten, said this is a systematic weakness with nothing being done to close the loopholes. This has enabled corrupt officials to move weapons from legal to illegal markets.

According to Kristen, after Several years of discussions with people who have embarked on class actions about the possibility of a successful class action, the state, for its negligence in securing its weapons, had led GFSA to bring the class action on behalf of the victim’s families.

“It goes back 10 years, with the focus now on the Ministry for its failure to put in place a system and holding the state accountable,” she says.

Listen to the interview on Your World Today with presenter ML Habib Bobat and his guest Adele Kristen