The police may be complicit in some of the most heinous crimes in the country, selling illegal and impounded guns destined for destruction to criminal syndicates, a Sunday World investigation has established.
Gun Free SA (GFSA) is threatening to take class action against the police.
Adele Kirsten, the director of GFSA, said some of the illegal guns meant for safekeeping and destruction have been stolen or smuggled from various police stations in the country.
Some senior police officers are complicit in “flooding and smuggling” the criminal syndicate market with “illegal guns”.
“The government has failed to safeguard the weapons and we have forensic evidence in this regard. We have embarked on this class action as a matter of
holding the police to account.
“The ministry of police has a responsibility to protect the people. We have made the ministry of police aware about our intentions to take them to court,” said Kirsten.
She said the issue of illegal guns was concerning and needed to be dealt with decisively.
Some sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that “across South Africa, there are hundreds of thousands of illegal guns in the hands of criminals.”
The sources claim, “the proliferation of these guns have one source, which is the rogue police employed by our government.”
“Some were stolen from the police stations where they were kept in safety to be destroyed, however, the same police officers are complicit as they allegedly smuggled illegal guns and sell them back to criminals”.
Some residents have deployed private security “to protect us as we have lost faith in the police altogether”.
Residents of Vlakfontein and Zakariyya Park, Lenasia in the south of Johannesburg, and Tembisa, on the East Rand, and some parts of Tshwane’s informal settlements and townships have prioritised their safety “above anything else”.
“We have been victims of crime. Illegal guns in the hands of criminals are causing panic.
“We have decided to install gates at the entrances of our area,” said Jack Mofokeng of Vlakfontein.
Bheki Cele’s spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said the ministry will respond to the lawsuit once it receives the court papers.
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