Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 14-10-2017
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has revealed that over 2 500 police firearms have either been stolen or lost over the past three financial years.
The shocking figure was announced in a written reply to a parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance (DA).
It was revealed that between the 2014/15 and 2016/17 financial years, the amount of firearms lost or stolen in a year increased by 8%.
The statistics also show that in the first four months of the current financial year, SAPS has only managed to recover 13 missing weapons, representing only 0,5% of the weapons lost or stolen over the previous three financial years.
The DA’s Dianne Koehler Barnard says while Gun violence remains one of South Africa’s top crime categories, the SAPS cannot continue turning a blind eye to disappearing firearms from its stores and police stations.
“It is shocking to learn that some of the weapons stolen were out of the SAPS’s 13 stores where exhibits are kept. This means that these were probably weapons used in the commission of a crime, and were subsequently stolen out of the stores again after they were confiscated as evidence.”
Barnard says SAPS must indicate the steps that have been taken to try and recover the lost firearms, including any action taken against SAPS members for negligence or corruption that may have led to the loss of the firearms.
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