Police consider tracking firearms
Government is considering the introduction of devices to track police-issued firearms.
Lobby group Afriforum released data provided to it by the South African National Police Service (SAPS) which shows almost 8000 police firearms were lost or stolen between 2009 and 2014.
Afriforum says police minister Fikile Mbalula has admitted that some of these firearms may have been used in violent and serious crime.
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The group's head of community safety Ian Cameron says the fight against violent crime is being lost due to poor leadership.
"We see Mbalula saying absurd things like he's the new sheriff in town. Well minister, it really does look like you have control over what is happening in the country. Because if we look at these figures you have no idea what you're doing.
"And it goes the same for Nathi Nhleko before him, Nathi Mthethwa before him. And if we go to from the other side and you look at Jackie Selebi when he was the national commissioner of polic, you look at Bheki Cele. All these charismatic things were being said. Yet in their time all of these bad things were happening."
The police's Vuyo Mhaga says they are intensifying efforts to curb and eliminate incidents of lost and stolen firearms.
"The discussion and think now is that possibly, maybe is there a possibility of actually putting trackers in these firearms and really trying to make sure that we curb that kind of level (of missing and stolen firearms)."