297 cop guns lost, stolen in East Cape
A TOTAL of 297 Eastern Cape police firearms went missing or were stolen in the past three years.
This was revealed when Safety and Liaison MEC Weziwe Tikana replied to questions asked by DA legislature leader Bobby Stevenson in the Bhisho legislature.
Of the 297 firearms, 153 were reported missing in the past three years and 144 were stolen.
“Every lost or stolen firearm becomes a weapon in the hands of criminals who slaughter countless innocent victims in this province,” Stevenson said yesterday.
“The SA Police Service needs to be disarming criminals and not arming them.”
This comes only a week after civil-rights organisation AfriForum won a court bid against Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to release the information on missing, lost and stolen state firearms between 2009 and 2004.
Mbalula’s figures showed that, nationally, 7 829 state firearms were missing, 3 576 were reported stolen, 3 026 and 1 227 unaccounted for or missing on the stock register during the five-year period.
The brief report gives a breakdown of Eastern Cape firearms, showing that 635 firearms were reportedly stolen, while 360 were lost between 2009 and 2014.
This does not include an additional 732 firearms which are unaccounted for or “missing on the stock register” in the Eastern Cape alone.
Asked what checks were done at police stations to ensure weapons were safe, Tikana said inspections were done twice a year and a task team had been formed to verify the availability of firearms at all stations.
In addition to this, police stations which needed firearm safes were supplied with them.
Stevenson said: “Clearly, the twice-yearly inspections, physical verification of firearms at each station and safes supplied to ‘needy stations’ is not enough.
Provincial police spokeswoman Colonel Sibongile Soci said the control of state firearms was a priority for management.
The Back to Back policing campaign placed the onus on commanders and supply chain to ensure the safety of firearms.
This included safe inspections by all station commanders at least once daily, quarterly inspection of personal inventory, daily checking of firearm registers, and the use of retention cords to ensure firearms were secure in holsters.