Three to appear in court over weapons

PROTESTERS are expected to gather outside the Bellville Magistrate’s Court later this month when businessman Irshaad Laher is back in the dock.

On July 22 he is expected to appear alongside co-accused Allan Raves, 50, a firearms dealer from Gauteng.

Raves, also an inspector for the SA Heritage Resources Institute whose duties included monitoring firearms destined for destruction, was arrested in Vereeniging in August.

The two are accused of being part of a syndicate that channelled thousands of firearms meant for destruction, to gangsters around the province.

On the same day they appear in Bellville, alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield is expected in the Khayelitsha Regional Court.

The case against Stanfield mirrors the case against Laher and Raves.

Stanfield is accused of illegally obtaining guns from police.

Aside from his wife Nicole Stanfield and sister Francisca Stanfield, three police officers from the Central Firearm Registry in Pretoria – Priscilla Mangyani, Billy April and Mary Cartwright – face charges with him.

The three officers are suspected of having created gun licence applications on the police’s computer system, then issuing the licences to gangsters and drug dealers in the Western Cape. – Caryn Dolley