Almost 8000 police firearms missing
Lobby group Afriforum's says it will ask police watchdog IPID to launch an investigation into the police's negligent handling of firearms.
Afriforum's says data provided to it by the department shows that the police had lost exactly 7829 firearms between 2009 and 2014. Kwa Zulu- Natal recorded the highest number of lost and stolen police firearms - 1908 in total.
Afriforum's Ian Cameron says Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has admitted some of the firearms may have been used in violent and serious crime
"In the last five years robbery aggregated has increased by about 30%. It will probably increase even more. The story is the same with cash and transit heists, they have also increased. Looking at murder in the past year, 18 000 people were killed."
Watch:
The Department's Vuyo Mhaga says the security cluster remains concerned about the number of missing firearms and is working on strategies to bring the numbers down
"The discussion and the thinking now is whether we can possibly put trackers in these firearms and curb this high level of missing and stolen firearms".
Listen: