South Africa police 'lose 3,000 guns a year'
Almost 3,000 South African police firearms were lost or
stolen in just nine months, it emerged today – about three for every police
station in the country, which has some of the highest crime rates in the world.
5:10PM GMT 27 Jan 2010
The worrying
statistic comes less than six months before the football World Cup kicks off in
the country.
Dianne Kohler
Barnard, the opposition Democratic Alliance shadow police minister, said that
the state weapons manufacturer Armscor had recently ordered 4,000 replacement
9mm handguns made by the Italian manufacturer Beretta.
A parliamentary
committee heard that 2,944 police weapons were lost or stolen between January
and September last year – more than in the whole of 2008, which was itself an
increase on 2007, she said.
The recovery rate for
weapons stolen from or lost by police was "extremely low", Ms Kohler
Barnard added, in contrast to thefts from civilians, where it was 100 per cent.
The figures suggest
that, wittingly or unwittingly, South African police could be a major supplier
of weapons to the country's criminal underworld.
"I can't
discount that," said Ms Kohler-Barnard, adding that it was impossible to
say how many of the guns declared lost had instead been sold by corrupt
officers. "I don't know whether they are selling them or leaving them on
the counter at Wimpy's when they go to have a hamburger."
Investigations into
lost firearms were sometimes launched, she said, but "nothing ever comes
of them, nothing ever happens and no one is punished".
She called for action
to ensure that fewer police guns "end up in the hands in criminals.
"The thought that
a SAPS [South African Police Service] firearm might be used to shoot and kill a
SAPS member is unconscionable," she said.
The SAPS spokesman
responsible for firearms issues was in a meeting this afternoon and not
available for comment.
Almost 50 people are
murdered every day in South Africa, one of the highest rates in the world for a
country not at war.
There are concerns
over the safety of thousands of football fans attending this summer's event.
