Minister drops cops incompetence gun licence bombshell
A FIFTH of the police officers killed for their guns weren’t licensed to carry them.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko told Parliament yesterday in reply to a question from the DA that over the past six years – from April 2010 to September 17 this year – 85 police officers had been killed and had their guns taken off them.
Fifty of the officers had been on duty.
Nhleko said 62 of the officers had the required firearm competency certificates, but 16 were listed as “not yet competent”. There was no indication of whether the remaining seven officers had the certificates.
A no-competency certificate means no legal gun licence.
According to the SAPS’s website, a competency certificate is required before a firearm licence can be issued; a licence is required in order to possess a gun.
The SAPS issues both the competency certificates and the firearm licences.
Nhleko said 31 of the guns were recovered and three were used to commit other crimes.
“It must be noted that in several instances, the serial numbers of firearms are removed, and it is therefore not possible to determine if the specific firearm has been recovered,” he said.
On September 10, Nhleko said 60 police officers had been killed since January – 27 of them on duty – and that 63 officers were killed on duty from April 2014 to March.
In May, Nhleko told Parliament in reply to a question from the DA that the SAPS had lost 743 guns during 2014/15, 773 during 2013/14 and 840 during 2012/13.