Cape Town, South Africa - 25 January 2024: Mitchells Plain residents and community activists protested outside Mitchells Plain police station after it emerged that fifteen guns and eight imitation weapons disappeared from the police storeroom in November 2023. Fourteen guns went missing from the same police station six years ago. Mitchells Plain is one the most gang ridden and crime affected areas on Cape Town’s notorious Cape Flats.

Sandy Schuter a community activist and a leader of the Strandfontein Community Policing Forum said: “I’m here because of the guns that has been sold to gangsters in the communities of the Cape Flats. I’m standing in the gap today for Strandfontein because that guns can land up in my community and that is the reason I’m standing here today”.

Norman Jantjies the chairperson of the Mitchells Plain Community Policing Forum said: “What’s happening here today is all about the missing guns. So as a CPF last week we heard in the corridors people were talking about guns an investigation that’s ongoing. We then subsequently called an urgent meeting with the station commander which happened Friday the 19th, last Friday. We then wanted to know what happened, why did it happen, how did it happen and whether there’s going to be consequences. Were these people operationally working with the guns or management ? Right. We were then advised that there is an official high level investigation done by the anti-corruption unit and that there people thats been arrested. We can’t tell you how many people. We can’t tell you the status of the investigation, we’ll find that out tomorrow morning”.

According to SAPS (South African Police Service) the officer involved was arrested three days after the weapons went missing. The officer has been dismissed and will appear in Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court on 2 February.