Guns, ammo stolen from police station

Thieves broke into the Tyefu police station in the Eastern Cape this week, making off with several firearms, ammunition and computers.

According to an incident report addressed to acting Sarah Baartman district police commissioner Brigadier John Lebok, the suspects made off with an R5 rifle, two 9mm pistols, six full 9mm magazines and one R5 magazine with 28 rounds.

Two police officers were the only ones on duty and locked the main door, burglar gate and yard gate to attend to a domestic violence complaint at around 8pm last Sunday.

They only returned to the station in Peddie at 4am on Monday as they had to remove the alleged abuser from a house together with his belongings and transport the victim to hospital, according to the report.

At the station, the yard gate was still locked and they noticed the burglar gate had been forcefully opened, and the door broken. Exhibits that were locked in a safe were scattered on the floor.

One of the officers saw the safe was open and discovered the firearms were missing.

The thieves had also broken into two offices and taken two computers.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana said they were investigating a case of burglary.

The suspects remain at large.

In January, the same police station came under attack from angry villagers fed up with “useless” and “unreliable” police officers. They locked up six police officers.

Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union provincial secretary Zamikhaya Skade said the union had been raising the issues of chronic staff shortages and lack of security in rural police stations for far too long.

“The community has previously raised complaints about police not attending to reported incidents.”

Meanwhile, in a separate incident on Friday, police recovered an R5 rifle that was stolen, along with two 9mm pistols, when five armed robbers stormed the Moyeni police station on 19 December.

The rifle was found inside an abandoned bakkie in Paterson by two officers who were patrolling the N10.