Call for more WC police stations to be investigated for missing guns
This follows the dismissal of five police officers linked to 15 firearms that were stolen at Mitchell's Plain Police Station in November last year.
FILE: A police vehicle from the Mitchells Plain Police Station. Picture: Lizell Persens/Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - The Cape Flats Safety Forum, a community safety advocacy group, is calling for all police stations in the Western Cape to be investigated for the disappearance of firearms.
This follows the dismissal of five police officers linked to 15 firearms that were stolen at Mitchells Plain Police Station in November last year.
The provincial police, however, confirmed that a criminal investigation into the matter was underway.
The forum believes that a net needed to be cast wider to include other police stations for loss of guns as mass shootings in Cape Town escalate.
News about the disappearance of the 15 firearms linked to Mitchells Plain started surfacing through the media in January 2024.
It was after the former police minister, Bheki Cele, was asked in Parliament about the incident and the matter began to receive attention following the launch of an internal investigation.
SAPS spokesperson Andre Traut said: "The loss of firearms at the Mitchells Plain police station is viewed in a very serious light by provincial police management, which necessitated serious consequences for those implicated."
The loss of firearms in the same police station is a repeat scandal, after 14 firearms were stolen in 2017, and those implicated, including the station commander, were later cleared.