Danie Reyneke, a former Hawks warrant officer in KwaZulu-Natal, was on Wednesday sentenced to 15 years in jail by the Durban regional court for theft of firearms.
Hawks spokesperson Bonnie Nxumalo said Reyneke, who stole the firearms from various police stations across KwaZulu-Natal, was found guilty of abusing his power.
He would book out the firearms and claim to be taking them for ballistic testing and not return them.
The 63-year-old, who is said to have committed the crimes between 1997 and 2014, was charged with illegal possession of ammunition and explosives, possession of unlicensed firearms, and negligence loss of firearms.
“In 2014, the accused was found with a number of firearms, ammunition and explosives. An investigation was conducted by the Hawks’ serious corruption investigation where Colonel Heap established that Reyneke, as a police officer, abused his powers to steal firearms from the police stations in the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal,” said Nxumalo.
Nxumalo added that Reyneke had five licensed firearms under his name but was only found with three. The others could not be traced, said Nxumalo, noting that Reyneke did not report having lost any firearm, “thus he was charged with negligence loss of firearms”.
“After an intensive investigation, he was arrested in July 2018 where the court released him on warning. He was then convicted in June 2022 after which he absconded before he could be sentenced.
“A warrant for his arrest was issued by court and he recently returned citing that he was physically not well.”
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