Brigadiers nabbed for contravening Firearms Control Act to appear in court

Two police brigadiers from Gauteng who were arrested by members of the Western Cape Anti-Gang Unit on Tuesday appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. The case was postponed to the 27th of February 2021

The station commanders are alleged to have been involved in fraud, defeating the ends of justice and contravening the Firearms Control Act. 

This brings the total number of people arrested in connection with multiple cases in Edenvale, Kempton Park and Norwood to 28. Police arrested 26 people earlier this year. Of those arrested, 17 are police officers, two of whom are retired and 11 civilians. 

The arrests were the result of a three-year investigation after it emerged in November 2017 that security companies were involved in crimes of extortion in the Western Cape. The firearms applications were processed in Gauteng. 

The syndicate meant people in Cape Town could easily obtain a firearm through corrupt competency and licensing processes and were able to get temporary authorisation to possess a firearm.

All applicants had to do was go to a gun shop in Kempton Park, where a proficiency test was done in order to fulfil an application for “competency to possess a firearm and ammunition”.

Investigators traced all applications to Gauteng, specifically to police in Edenvale, Norwood and Kempton Park. 

On 8 October, two other police officers from the Norwood police station, Anwa Gallie and Sergeant Lesiba Rodney Masoga, were to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court, along with alleged crime underworld boss Nafiz Modack. 

However, the court had to be cleared after rumours someone had brought a firearm into the courthouse. 

Gallie, Lesiba and Modack were to face charges relating to fraud, defeating the ends of justice and violating the Firearms Control Act – the same charges pinned on the two brigadiers expected to appear in court on Wednesday. 

The officer investigating the alleged fraud relating to firearms was the late Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear, who was shop dead in his car in front of his house in Cape Town on 18 September. 

The case was postponed to February 2021. 

(Compiled by Nica Richards)

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