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SA’s police stations becoming criminals’ leading firearm shops
Gun activists say police are too poorly trained and under-resourced to prevent criminals from raiding cop shops for weapons.
Photo: iStock
With 13 robberies at police stations in the last three years, during which 78 firearms and 982 rounds of ammunition were stolen, activists have pointed to police complicity in arming criminals with enough firepower to unleash a reign of terror.
This was revealed in Police Minister Bheki Cele’s reply to Freedom Front Plus leader Dr Pieter Groenewald’s parliamentary question regarding robberies at police stations.
Particularly alarming to gun activists is that none of the 24 suspects arrested in connection with the robberies has thus far been successfully prosecuted, with them pointing to poor police training, resources and expertise.
Cele’s reply ‘factually incorrect’
“When taking into account that the stolen firearms include 23 [5,56mm] assault rifles and 40 [9mm] pistols – the type of weapons usually used in transit and other robberies – then it is clear that police stations have become a convenient source of illegal firearms for criminals. Just six of the 23 assault rifles and four of the 40 pistols were recovered,” Groenewald lamented.
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He said in his reply, Cele claimed that no robberies occurred at police stations in the 2021/2022 financial year, yet the Hotazel police station was robbed of three R5 assault rifles, eight 9mm pistols and two 12-gauge shotguns on 31 July 2021.
“So, the reply is factually incorrect and I will ask him to provide an explanation. These are firearms obtained through robberies. If the thousands of firearms stolen from or lost by police stations are considered, the police have become one of the biggest suppliers of illegal firearms for criminals.
“The Minister must provide answers for this and must say what he is going to do about it,” Groenewald added.
Cops the worst custodians of firearms in the country
Firearms advocacy group Gun Owners SA said the figures excluded 170-odd mostly assault rifles stolen from Norwood police station in Johannesburg, and the 60-odd firearms stolen out of police custody when the SAPS removed more than 500 firearms from a dealer in Pretoria.
The group’s director Paul Oxley said former police Colonel Chris Prinsloo may have stolen as many as 9000 firearms to sell to the Cape Flats gangs, of which more than 2000 were positively linked to crimes.
Prinsloo is currently serving an 18-year jail term for selling firearms that ended up with gang members in the Western Cape.
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“Seen together, it is quite clear that these are far more than isolated incidents. This is a well-established trend. SAPS are the worst possible custodians of firearms as there is a complete lack of consequence management,” he said.
Oxley said police had previously revealed that more than 100% of all reported civilian firearms losses were recovered but less than 20% of guns lost by the police were ever recovered.
“…when the SA Police Service members want to sell their own duty firearms to crooks; they sanitise them first to prevent them being traced back to the stations or the officers they are issued to,” he said.
In June six men robbed Kwaggafontein police station in Mpumalanga and allegedly stole five shotguns, rifles, four pistols, four cell phones, as well as 83 rounds of R5 rifle ammunition, 25 rounds of pistol ammunition, as well as police bullet proof vests.
Inside jobs
Damian Enslin, chairperson of South African Gun Owners’ Association said they have been asking the police ministry to tackle criminal activities at police stations, including the spate of robberies.
He said these must be inside jobs and police were seemingly incapable of tackling such crimes, pointing to police inefficiency, lack of resources, and poor training.
“… police members and the police stations are no longer effectively trained correctly to deal with such attacks on the police stations. The use of police’s own firearms to combat such attacks is severely lacking. It seems that police stations are unable to defend themselves or adequately defend themselves against criminal activity,” Enslin said.
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He said this was the reason police stations were becoming easy targets for the criminals, with police stations having to hire private security to protect them.
Enslin said the pathetic conviction and recovery rate of stolen weapons and ammunition boiled down to lack of detective expertise and resources.
“We therefore call on [Cele] the mesa police and the national commissioner [Fannie Masemola] to take crime, as well as the training and resourcing of police officers seriously, and get proper training to police officers and ensure that these stations have adequate number of staff,” he added.
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