According to official reports, multiple police stations across various provinces recorded firearm losses under different circumstances. Incidents included firearms lost during official duties, theft from state and private vehicles, housebreakings, and cases where weapons went missing from police officers. The provinces with the highest reported losses include Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and the Western Cape, with significant numbers of incidents occurring in urban centers such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.

One of the more concerning trends is the loss of weapons due to housebreakings, with multiple cases in Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. Additionally, reports indicate that firearms were also lost during the execution of official duties, suggesting procedural weaknesses in weapon handling and storage.

The data further reveals that SAPS personnel primarily lost 9mm Parabellum pistols, including Beretta and Vektor Z 88 models, which are standard issue for officers. However, in one case, a Vektor R5 rifle was reported lost in KwaZulu-Natal, raising additional concerns about the security of high-powered weapons.

The revelation of these losses comes amid ongoing concerns about illegal firearms fueling violent crime in South Africa. Lost police-issued firearms can easily end up in criminal hands, exacerbating problems such as gang violence, armed robberies, and organized crime activities.

Despite SAPS efforts to tighten firearm control measures, the frequent loss of weapons points to gaps in accountability, tracking, and enforcement of firearm management protocols. The issue of firearms lost under unclear circumstances further highlights the need for stricter oversight and improved internal controls within SAPS.

The losses add to growing pressure on law enforcement leadership to ensure greater accountability in firearm management and prevent weapons meant for public protection from contributing to criminal activity.

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The distribution of licensed firearms among private security companies varies considerably by province. Gauteng, the economic hub of South Africa, holds the highest share, with a staggering 77 089 firearms. KwaZulu-Natal follows with 26 792, while Limpopo reported over 8,000 firearms in the possession of private security firms. In contrast, provinces like the Northern Cape and Free State have fewer firearms, with the Northern Cape reporting just 210 licensed firearms.

Private security companies are permitted to acquire firearms under the South African Firearms Control Act, 2000 (Act No. 60 of 2000). According to Section 20(1)(a) of the Act, security companies may be licensed to purchase any firearm, provided it is not classified as a prohibited firearm. This provision allows private security firms a broad selection of weapons to meet the diverse needs of protecting individuals and property.

In response to concerns about the potential misuse of firearms by private security companies, the Minister of Police confirmed that, as of the latest update, no security company has been flagged for purchasing unauthorized firearms. This suggests that the regulatory framework surrounding firearm licensing and purchases for security companies is being adhered to, at least in this regard.

However, not all aspects of firearm management within the private security sector are positive. A worrying trend is the number of firearms reported lost or stolen. In the 2023/24 financial year, a total of 1 648 firearms were reported as either lost or stolen by security companies. This number continues to rise, with 847 firearms reported lost or stolen in the first half of the 2024/25 financial year. This is a matter of concern, as lost or stolen firearms can easily end up in the wrong hands, posing a potential public safety risk.

The loss of firearms underscores the importance of stringent controls and oversight in the security sector, particularly regarding the safekeeping of firearms and the investigation of any incidents of theft or misplacement.

The substantial number of firearms in the hands of private security companies across South Africa highlights the critical role these firms play in the country’s security landscape. However, concerns regarding firearm losses and the potential for misuse or criminal activity are not negligible. While no companies have been flagged for unauthorized purchases, the reported losses reflect ongoing challenges in ensuring the secure handling of firearms.

With a total of 126 529 firearms licensed to private security companies, the need for robust oversight and accountability remains pressing, particularly given the increasing number of firearms reported as lost or stolen. As South Africa continues to grapple with high levels of crime, the role of private security companies and their firearms will remain under scrutiny.

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Yet, the only state entity that reports some of its lost or stolen firearms is the police. The South African Police Service (SAPS), along with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), own less than 30% of the total number of state-owned firearms.

Speaking on Thursday at an Institute for Security Studies (ISS) seminar focussing on its latest policy brief, Targeting firearm crime will make South Africa safer, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime researcher Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane said the SANDF and other state entities were supposed to report their firearm losses and thefts to the Central Firearms Registry, but they do not do this.

“They don’t. They simply don’t,” she said, and it was “shocking”.

She said analysis by the Civilian Secretariat for Police, gathering information on losses between 2003 and 2013 gleaned from media reports and information from the Central Firearms Registry, concluded that the total loss of firearms was 18 000 over the ten-year period.

Meanwhile, the average number of firearm-related murders in South Africa has risen from 23 per day in the 2021/22 financial year, to 34.

Illegal firearms entering South Africa from across the borders has decreased, and “a far more concerning factor is the domestic sources”, said Irish-Qhobosheane.

While police report the loss or theft of police-issue firearms (those carried by officers), the loss or theft of firearms under its jurisdiction, such as those kept as evidence and those handed in for destruction during amnesty periods, is not reported.

Irish-Qhobosheane said former police minister Bheki Cele acknowledged that at least 357 firearms had vanished from evidence stores between April 2020 and November 2023.

“We don’t believe this is an accurate figure,” said Irish-Qhobosheane, as 178 of those firearms had gone missing from a single station – Norwood. This was only discovered when police from another station were following up on weapons used in a cash-in-transit heist in which a police officer had been killed.

“When they checked with forensics, one of those firearms was listed as being in the evidence store in Norwood.”

It was only then that they discovered 178 firearms had gone missing, she said.

In 2016, Vereeniging-based cop Colonel Chris Lodewyk Prinsloo pleaded guilty to selling firearms to Cape Flats gangs and other criminal networks. Prinsloo, a custodian of a SAPS armoury, confessed to selling 2 400 firearms, but Irish-Qhobosheane believes the figure was much higher – about 9 000.

Fraudulent firearms licences issued through corruption to underworld figures and problems with the Central Firearms Registry are also a problem, as illustrated in current court cases.

She said while 63 500 licensed civilian firearms had been lost or stolen between 2013 and 2023, the recovery rate was relatively high at about 60%.

In the period 2003 to 2023, about 30,000 police issued firearms were reported lost or stolen, but the recovery rate was “significantly lower” than for civilian arms. This raises the question of whether many of those firearms had not actually been lost or stolen, but were “handed over” to criminals.

The number of firearms lost or stolen from the SANDF is unknown. Media reports and parliamentary questions have revealed a “significant number” have gone missing.

As with the Norwood police station, theft of SANDF firearms was sometimes discovered by default. This was the case at the Lyttleton army base in Pretoria where 19 assault rifles were stolen in 2019.

“If you scan the annual reports of SAPS you’ll see figures like: 67 firearms lost by government departments. Then you scan the media and you see that one metropolitan police department lost 700 weapons in that same year. So how were only 67 across all government departments reported to the police?” asked Irish-Qhobosheane.

The SANDF did not report ammunition theft and loss but at least 330 rounds of R4 ammunition were lost in 2018/19. Meanwhile, the police, she said, lost nine-million rounds between 2014 and 2019.

This indicated that while police were trying to empty the pool of illegal firearms, having arrested 125 000 people for possession of illegal firearms and ammunition between 2014 and 2023, “the tap was still running”.

Cases involving firearms lost by the state were also stalled or missing. As an example, she said in a 2014 case “more than half” of 300 illegal firearms (112 of which were assault rifles) found in a civilian home in Norwood were found to have come from the state. Despite promises of an investigation and her continually following up on the case “for the last three years”, the case has disappeared.

Need for crime intelligence

ISS policing expert David Bruce, who authored the ISS policy brief, said the circulation of illegal firearms made mass killings, such as 18 people shot dead in Lusikisiki last month, more likely.

Bruce said the ISS had in June released 11 recommendations on how to strengthen SAPS and improve crime reduction. Among these was the need for SAPS to map firearm crime, as it would enable police resources to be better focused on targeted areas.

Bruce said ISS mapping showed firearm crime was most prevalent in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, but increasing in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga.

He said SAPS needs to introduce an integrated strategy for collecting and synthesising information about firearm crime. This would involve strengthening the quality of crime records and improving ballistic testing. The information should be consolidated in a database to trace the links between the sources of firearms and criminals.

While SAPS had “very good information at its disposal”, the information wasn’t used effectively, said Bruce.

There is also a need for cooperation with the National Prosecuting Authority, particularly on more complex cases involving organised crime.

Resources for investigating firearm crime needed to be properly organised, with dedicated units.

Finally, the Central Firearms Registry needed to strengthened, he said.

Central Firearms Registry dysfunctional

Gauteng Department of Community Safety deputy director Freddy Hlungwani said during a departmental evaluation of the Firearms Control Act, they found Central Firearms Registry (CFR) personnel could not respond to very basic questions, such as how many firearms they received and processed per month.

“There might be something wrong within the CFR itself,” said Hlungwani.

He said the Act did not address the issue of illegal firearms, but was about regulating legal firearms. Yet, legal firearms entered the illegal market when they were stolen from legal firearm owners, private security companies, the SAPS, the SANDF, and other government departments.

He said police were not even able to monitor and keep proper records of lawful firearms. They only saw legal firearm owners once every five years when they came to renew their licence. Unannounced visits to firearm licence holders are needed. Similarly, unannounced inspections “all the time” of police stations and their firearm registers are needed.

More roadblocks are needed as these often led to the recovery of illegal firearms.

Recovered firearms were found to have been recorded in the Central Firearms Registry as having been destroyed.

He said SAPS and Home Affairs systems need to be linked so that firearms in deceased estates could be confiscated by the police upon the death of a licence holder, and destroyed or kept until the beneficiary of the estate obtained a firearm licence.

Harsher sentences were also needed for those found guilty of committing crimes with firearms, he said.

Accurate crime statistics

SAPS Crime Registrar Major-General Norman Sekhukune said the crime registrar was responsible for collecting accurate crime statistics, down to station level.

Sekhukune said the correlation between firearm-related murders and the number of firearms was not “one-to-one”. One firearm could be linked to a number of murders across different provinces, and firearms were sometimes hired out by criminals.

Forensic investigations found one firearm had been used by different criminals in 35 separate murders across a number of provinces.

He said police needed to gain a “full understanding” of how firearms moved into the illegal market and how they circulated, in order to minimise this.

Written by Steve Kretzmann for GroundUp and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.

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