The South African police has on Monday said unidentified people broke into its security company premises in Polokwane and stole 18 firearms between Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday.
The suspects, according to the police had violently opened the door with an unknown object and stole the firearms along with an unknown number of ammunition and one computer with a keyboard.
“As we continue to fight against violent crimes perpetrated through firearms, we cannot afford to have these firearms landing in the wrong hands” said acting provincial commissioner of police in Limpopo Jan Scheepers, adding that the police had launched manhunt for the suspects.
He added that they would also investigate whether the firearms were safely secured in accordance with the law.
He appealed to the public to make available, any information that can lead to the arrest of the suspects.
In the past, firearms have been stolen and used to commit crimes such as armed robbery and South Africa’s police force has lost more than 20,000 firearms since 2004, according to a parliamentary committee hearing.
MPs questioning police officials about the loss urged the force to take urgent action against officers who lose their weapons.
They said they feared the guns were falling into the hands of criminals.
South Africa – which has a high violent crime rate – has over the years struggled to control the number of unlicensed firearms in the country.
The police described the report as “worrying” and attributed the loss to a lack of discipline.
The officials being questioned could not say how many police officers had been criminally prosecuted, disciplined or fired because of the loss – as required by law.
Gary Kruser, head of the police’s procurement services, said 4,810 of those weapons had been recovered in the last seven years.
The committee members said the police were being careless with government-issued guns.
“I am convinced that many murders are committed with police weapons” Diane Kohler Barnard, opposition MP from the Democratic Alliance, said. (dpa)
