A former veteran police officer from Vereeniging, Christiaan Prinsloo (56), who was found guilty of stealing confiscated firearms and ammunition, was last week sentenced in the Bellville Magistrates Court to 18 years.
The weapons, destined for destruction, were stolen from Police storage facilities
The former Vaal Triangle police colonel had 35 years’ service in die SAPS.
His duties included being the chief firearms licensing officer for Gauteng, having a firearms officer at all police stations in the province reporting to him. He admitted to using his senior position and resources to supply weapons to criminals and arms dealers. The crimes were committed from 2007 to January 2015, when he was arrested at his home in Vereeniging.
Investigation
His arrest followed a two-year investigation by a Western Cape police task team. Several hundred rounds of state-owned ammunition and 38 different kinds of firearms, including semi-automatic pistols were discovered at his home. He was released on R5 000 bail in the Vereeniging Magistrates Court in January 2015, and resigned from the Police Service shortly afterwards. Prinsloo was re-arrested on more charges on July 6 last year and was transferred to Cape Town to appear in the Western Cape High Court.
He originally faced 28 charges, including murder, attempted murder, theft, corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
The offences related to various incidents in Silverton, Germiston, Wynberg and Pretoria.
The state argued that Prinsloo and others “known or unknown to the state” had formed a criminal group and had acted continuously in common purpose to commit the offences.
Legal history
The murder charges arose from the death of Sipho Dyani of Delft on April 22, 2013, Gregory Isaacs in Belhar on December 29, 2013 and Damien Juries of Voorbrug on May 12, 2014, who were all apparently killed with weapons sold by Prinsloo and his collaborators to gangsters on the Cape Flats.
It was the first time in South Africa’s legal history that a person who sold illegal firearms was charged with murder committed by other suspects with those weapons.
The murder and attempted murder charges had later been dropped and Prinsloo, through a plea agreement with the state, only admitted to 11 charges of corruption, racketeering, theft and money laundering.
The disgraced former policeman admitted that he and other colleagues stole a total of 2 400 guns and sold them for some R2 million.
In his plea agreement, Prinsloo admitted he would not have stopped selling guns to gangsters if police had not intercepted the syndicate last year.
Prinsloo’s sentencing, last week Wednesday, came as good news to Mr Chris van der Berg, owner of Accredited Firearm Training Assessment (PTY)Ltd, situated in Northcliff, Johannesburg, although he is of the opinion that this is just the tip of an iceberg. Van der Berg became suspicious of certain members of the police in 2010 and officially reported the alleged theft of firearms to the SAPS in October of that year.
Cover-up
“Why on earth are the other police members implicated not in jail with Prinsloo,” he asks. He describes the outcome of the investigation and court case as “the most sickening cover-up by SAPS management you can imagine”.
On Monday June 27 Mr Irshaan Laher, a Cape Town businessman, was granted R100 000 bail in the Bellville Magistrates Court after being arrested on suspicion of being a middleman between Prinsloo and Cape Flats gangs.
His charges include murder, fraud, corruption, theft, illegal possession of firearms and illegal selling thereof. His case was postponed to July 22. Prosecutors in the case have not ruled out more arrests.
