Hundreds of police guns lost or stolen in South Africa – with one province easily the worst
The South African Police Service has seen over 300 firearms and close to 30,000 rounds of ammunition lost or stolen in just six months.
Responding to a question from Rise Mzansi’s Makashule Gana, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said that 371 firearms were lost or stolen during the second semester of the 2023/24 financial year (1 October 2023 to 31 March 2024).
Gauteng was the worst performer by far, with 121 guns lost or stolen.
KwaZulu-Natal came in second place with 74 guns stolen or lost, while the Eastern Cape saw 55 guns leave its officers.
The Free State was the best performer, with ten stolen or misplaced guns.
Notably, far more guns (349) were stolen compared to the 22 weapons that were lost.
Mchunu said that 191 police officers were robbed of their service pistols.
| Province | Guns Stolen | Guns Lost | Guns Total |
| Gauteng | 112 | 9 | 121 |
| KZN | 68 | 6 | 74 |
| Eastern Cape | 54 | 1 | 55 |
| Mpumalanga | 30 | 0 | 30 |
| Limpopo | 28 | 1 | 29 |
| Western Cape | 22 | 0 | 22 |
| North West | 17 | 2 | 19 |
| Northern Cape | 11 | 0 | 11 |
| Free State | 7 | 3 | 10 |
| Total | 349 | 22 | 371 |
Although 350 of the guns that were stolen or missing were pistols, 12 R5 rifles, five R1 rifles and four shotguns also left the police’s hands.
Rise Mzansi said that the R1 and R5 rifles are, in many instances, used in the commission of cash-in-transit heists.
On a more positive note, 120 identifiable SAPS firearms were recovered over the six-month period.
Over the period, 122 arrests were made on 331 case dockets related to stolen or missing guns.
The Minister also said that 29,128 ammunition rounds were recorded as lost/stolen during the second semester of 2023/24. Over 18,000 of these lost rounds came from the SAPS’s head office divisions.
“The total number of rounds of ammunition that were recovered cannot be identified as either SAPS-owned or privately-owned because they do not have unique identification markings, such as serial numbers,” said the Minister
Rise Mzansi said that SAPS Commissioner General Fannie Masemola should table a detailed crisis plan before the Police Portfolio Committee on how the Service will:
- Prevent lost/stolen firearms and ammunition
- Implement consequences for lost/stolen weapons and ammunition
- Develop intelligence, forensic and detective capacity within the SAPS to recover lost/stolen firearms and ammunition
Major challenges facing the police
The loss of weapons adds to growing list of problems facing the SAPS.
In a separate response to Gana, Mchunu said that the SAPS currently employs 22,413 detectives but that there are currently 8,594 vacancies for detectives nationwide.
This lack of detectives severely limits the SAPS’s ability to fight crimes.
South Africa has over 8,000 vacant detective positions, which is limiting the police’s ability to solve crimes and becoming a serious problem.
In a separate response to the Democratic Alliance, former Police Minister Bheki Cele said that 5.4 million case dockets were closed without results due to a lack of evidence of leads since the 2018/19 financial year.
Mchunu provided a more detailed breakdown of the total number of dockets for serious offences closed without result:
- Murder: 76,655
- Attempted murder: 40,089
- Assault GBH: 141,026
- Aggravated robbery: 256,162
- Rape: 61,740
- Sexual Assault: 5,523
- Kidnapping: 9,114
As South Africa recorded close to 115,00 murders over the five-year period, roughly two out of three murders since 2018/19 in South Africa were not solved.
Read: R50 million payday for Discovery Bank CEO – R20 million more than his boss
Loading ...
