Cele to ensure seized firearms are destroyed regularly
Police Minister Bheki Cele says he will ensure that seized and surrendered firearms will be destroyed regularly, to prevent them from being stolen from police storage facilities.
He was speaking in Vereeniging in the Vaal where the South African Police Services destroyed more than 30 000 weapons on Wednesday morning.
The last such destruction took place in October 2016.
@SAPoliceService will this morning lead the destruction of over 30 000 firearms at Arcelor Mittal Steel in Vereeniging. The destruction will be followed by a media briefing led by Police Minister Bheki Cele. #GunDestruction pic.twitter.com/OjPgQ7wNGI
— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) April 17, 2019
Cele says there are still more than 60 000 firearms that need to be destroyed.
“We all realise that keeping them there at the SP13, at whatever storeroom is tempting somebody to get naughty about them. In the store at the present moment we have another about 60 000 that I can assure you it won’t take a year from now to destroy them going forward. The shorter you keep them; we are cutting off any naughty people or any naughty idea of selling them or leaking them out.”
@SAPoliceService National Commissioner khehla Sitole and Police Minister Bheki Cele inspecting the guns which will be destroyed today at Arcellor Mittal’s plant in Vereeniging.#GunsOffTheStreets #GunDestruction pic.twitter.com/8NjrDxacSe
— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) April 17, 2019