Police seize 49 guns and arrest 40 in Gauteng

GAUTENG police seized at least 49 firearms in a sting operation over the weekend.

This follows a spate of police killings countrywide during which a number of police service pistols were stolen by robbers. Forty suspects were arrested and 100 watches believed to have been stolen were confiscated.

A policing expert at the Institute for Security Studies, Johan Burger, has called for the upskilling of officers responding to aggravating robbery. He said violent crimes were on the rise and a more focused strategy to curb this sort of crime was necessary.

Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the recovery could help solve cases related to violent crimes. “The seizure of these firearms may be a breakthrough in solving cases of serious and violent crimes, including mall robberies, cash heists, house robberies and the hijacking of vehicles.”

In an operation in the Moroka policing sector in Soweto, 11 pistols were recovered. An R5 rifle and two pistols were found in Olifantsfontein when the police seized a stolen car. Police, acting on a tip-off, recovered more than 400 rounds of ammunition for various types of guns in a house in Alexandra.

Gauteng provincial commissioner LieutenantGeneral Lesetja Mothiba has commended the community for providing the police with information.

“Without the support and co-operation of Gauteng communities, these successes would not have been achieved,” he said.

The suspects would be charged with the possession of unlicensed firearms when they appear before magistrate’s courts in the province, said Dlamini.