Sunday, February 16, 2025

FIRST WITH SECURITY NEWS

More weapons theft from SAPS facilities “a security crisis”

Published on

Theft of, among others, stun grenades from a South African Police Service (SAPS) base in Eerste Rivier is, according to the Democratic Alliance (DA), part of a pattern of supposedly securely stored weapons “finding their way onto the streets”.

The assertion, in the wake of the theft of a gas launcher and multiple rounds of less than lethal ammunition and the stun grenades, by Thomas Walters, DA Western Cape Community Safety and Police Oversight spokesman, highlights “a growing security crisis in SAPS facilities”. He maintains it isn’t “simply theft” and points to the January theft of 15 firearms from an evidence storage locker in the Mitchells Plain police station.

“That same month, DA parliamentary questions revealed that 1 725 officially-issued SAPS firearms were stolen between April 2021 and July 2023 – an average of 61 every month,” he said, adding there is a need to rethink policing in the DA governed province.

Noting the successes of the province’s LEAP (law enforcement advancement plan) officers, working with police with “hundreds of illegal firearms confiscated and thousands arrested”, he has it “no amount of policing will be successful without a revamp of SAPS’ dangerously outmoded and overly centralised approach to policing”.

He repeated the DA call for devolution of policing to “capable sub-national governments” as the single most impactful measure to curb violence. “In addition to allowing wider implementation of the Western Cape’s proven tech-enabled and data-led policing, this step would allow the long-awaited implementation of a provincial site for the destruction of illegal firearms.”

“It is unthinkable that the very organisation charged with public safety has had a hand in directly arming violent criminals. This most recent incident highlights a dangerous lack of security at many SAPS facilities and must be taken as an urgent wake-up call.

“Efforts to curb violence in our communities can never be successful when our own national police service remains a prominent source of unlawful firearms. The DA calls for a full and urgent investigation into this week’s theft at Faure Base,” he said, adding parliamentary questions on the matter will go to Western Cape SAPS management.

Walters’ comments come as Lisa Shickerling, DA Deputy Spokesperson on Police, this week expressed “grave concern” at reports that at a SAPS-registered firearm and several articles of official SAPS uniform (including headdresses, bullet proof vests, and a raincoat) were found in possession of suspects involved in a robbery and shooting incident in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal, on over the weekend.

Welcoming the apprehension of the six-member gang, Shickerling said, “it is highly troubling that offenders can access official SAPS uniforms for use in their criminal activities. Possession of these articles flings the door open to large-scale and utterly convincing impersonations of SAPS officers, placing the lives and livelihoods of incalculable South Africans at extreme risk, further undermining public trust in our law enforcement agencies and sowing discord between communities and those tasked with keeping them safe.

“The SAPS and the Minister must urgently ensure that its uniform and equipment supply chains are kept safe and secure, and out of the hands of criminals. The DA will pose a suite of written questions to the Minister of Police to obtain more information on the integrity of its supply chain management system, with specific reference to its uniform procurement systems, and to ascertain how many official SAPS unforms, or their parts, are currently unaccounted for,” she stated.

MOST READ

SITE SPONSORS

More like this

More police than border guards and soldiers protect SA borders

Border protection in South Africa is a joint responsibility shared between the Border Management...

SAPS addresses queries on new police trainee recruitment

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has responded to queries on new police trainee...

Securing the future: Innovative technologies and strategies for border control in South Africa

South Africa’s borders have long served as a crucial gateway for commerce, tourism, and...