The SAPS actually has a target of how many guns it’s allowed to lose
Portfolio Committee on Police is concerned that the number of lost or stolen SAPS-owned firearms is more than the set target – meaning the Police department has a target of how many guns are acceptable to lose.
The committee interacted with the Office of the Auditor-General (AG), SAPS, the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS) and labour unions on the portfolio’s annual reports this week.
The committee said it welcomes the general improvement in the audit report of entities within the police portfolio but raised the alarm about the attainment of targets, especially those relating to the reduction of contact crime and forensic services.
The committee also called for South African Police Service (SAPS) management to further enhance internal controls, resolve procurement issues, and strengthen consequence management and monitoring within the environment to ensure targets are met.
However, one of these targets is the acceptable number of firearms owned by the SAPS that are stolen or lost.
“It is concerning for the committee to note that 742 firearms owned by the SAPS were confirmed as stolen or lost, which is 142 more than the target of 600. The committee called for a more effective strategy to reduce the loss of SAPS-owned firearms,” it said.
This comes as a surprise, as you would think the goal would be to lose zero firearms, especially when considering thousands of police firearms have ended up in criminal hands in South Africa – either through theft or outright corruption – and these guns have been linked to at least 1,000 deaths over the last few years.
According to the latest Crime Stats from the South African Police Service (SAPS), murder dropped 3.81% from 6,424 in Q1 2022/23 to 6,228 in 2023/24.
Although this is a decline in the number of murders, the rate is still unacceptably high. 6,228 murders of the period means, on average, 68 murders occurred in South Africa every day from April to June 2023.
Firearms remain the most frequently used instrument to commit murders, accounting for 2,756 murders nationwide.
Alarmingly, in a recent parliamentary Q&A, it was revealed that 1,066 murders were committed and linked to police-issued firearms since 2016.
The parliamentary paper noted that, in 2016, two former police colonels confessed to selling over 2,000 firearms to gangs – and despite the recovery of some of these guns – SAPS estimated that around 1,000 of these weapons are still in circulation.
This instance and the number of murders committed using these police-issued firearms seem to be only the tip of the iceberg.
According to the South African Gunowners Association (SAGA), 10% of the SAPS’s firearms have been reported as lost or stolen over the past two decades, while 9.5 million rounds of ammunition have gone missing since 2016.
In the past five financial years, 3,405 official police firearms were stolen or went missing, while between 2005 and 2017, 26,025 firearms that were issued to police officers were stolen or could simply not be accounted for, according to a City Press report.
The firearms being stolen include assault rifles, handguns, and even explosives in some instances – and Joubert says the South African public is facing a crisis.
“I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but these robberies represent one of the most serious threats against public safety and national security at present,” said SAGA’s Gideon Joubert.
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