More Weapons Thefts From 9 SAI SANDF Military
Base
02 June 1998
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Meeting report
JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON DEFENCE; SAFETY &
SECURITY PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
3 June 1998
WEAPONS THEFT FROM MILITARY BASES: BRIEFING BY
SANDF
Documents handed out:
Press release: Statement by the Minister for Safety
& Security, Mr. FS Mufumadi, Bloemfontein, 3 May 1998 (included below as an
appendix)
The Deputy Minister of the South African National
Defence Force, Mr Ronnie Kasrils, spoke about the incident which took place on
the 18 May 1998, when a large amount of weapons and ammunition were stolen. He
explained how the incident occurred and detailed the new developments and plan
of action for further investigation.
On the 15 and 16 June 1998 large numbers of people
attended sports day at Tempe Army Base in Bloemfontein. This resulted in a
shortage of guards to man the Tempe Military Base and guard it as most of the
soldiers had participated in the sports events. On Sunday 17 May 1998, a guard
realized that two gates leading to the Transport Department were broken.
However, no vehicle had been stolen.
He was therefore not suspicious and did not make any
effort to further investigate the matter or even report the matter to his superiors in
command.
It was only on 18 May 1998, that it was realized that the
armory had been broken into. It was discovered that large amounts of ammunition
were missing. After this discovery was made, a white Brigadier in charge of the
armory disappeared. It was noticed also that the bars of windows at the store
had been sawed into.
On 1 June 1998 two soldiers were sent to Lady Brand
from Bloemfontein. They were transporting large amounts of weaponry by truck.
They were intercepted on the way to Lady Brand and never arrived as scheduled.
Lady Brand informed Bloemfontein about the delay and suspicions were aroused.
The Joint South African Police Services, Defence Force and Air Force instituted
an immediate search for the vehicle. Intelligence commenced investigating the
matter and soon discovered that the truck had been ambushed, with most of the
weaponry and ammunition missing...........
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