A rented flat that was allegedly used as a storeroom for guns and drugs was uncovered in Cape Town during a week in which police seized 54 guns.
Of the firearms confiscated across the Western Cape, 19 were found in the flat in the suburb of Goodwood, which is not known for overt gang violence.
The discovery suggests how certain organised crime groups are storing – or stockpiling – firearms. It also points to the types of weapon criminals have access to.
Daily Maverick understands the cache could be linked to a gang.
Western Cape police seized 54 guns in operations across the province over a week. Among them were 20 weapons, including an assault rifle, linked to an arms cache discovered in a flat in Goodwood, Cape Town. (Photos: SAPS)
54 guns seized, 52 shot dead
On Monday, 8 July, the South African Police Service (SAPS) announced that the 54 guns had been seized in the Western Cape in different incidents over seven days.
#sapsWC For the past week, police in the Western Cape have already seized 54 firearms during operations, compared to the last financial year which saw 1 247 illegal firearms and 21 059 rounds of ammunition seized. #GunsOffTheStreets NPhttps://t.co/Fb6lrHSNYf pic.twitter.com/uWIgKi35h1
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦(@SAPoliceService) July 8, 2024
Daily Maverick, meanwhile, understands that, based on SAPS statistics that are yet to be officially released, more people were killed in the Western Cape over a week.
According to those figures, 88 people were murdered in the province from 1 to 7 July. Of those killed, 52 were shot.
The number of guns seized in a week therefore nearly equals the number of people murdered in shootings over roughly the same period.
When previously asked about another set of Western Cape crime figures that were not officially released, the province’s police said statistics were only disclosed during the police minister’s official quarterly release.
Western Cape police seized 54 guns in operations across the province over a week. (Photo: SAPS)
One of the weapons seized by Western Cape police in operations across the province over a week. (Photo: SAPS)
Lockdown proposed
The Western Cape is widely known as South Africa’s gangsterism capital, and this week the City of Cape Town again flagged a flare-up of gang violence.
Several months ago, to tackle the problem, the mayoral committee’s safety and security member, JP Smith, even brought up the idea of “a 24-hour-a-day lockdown sustained for weeks to dismantle the gang activities and remove firearms and gang members from the communities”.
The SAPS would have to approve such a drastic measure.
In the week during which police seized dozens of firearms, some officers in the Western Cape had close brushes with armed criminals.
A Western Cape police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi, said officers in Gugulethu noticed a VW Polo being driven recklessly on Friday, 5 July. They instructed the driver to stop, but he sped off.
Western Cape police seized 54 guns in operations across the province over a week. Among them were 20 weapons, including an assault rifle, linked to an arms cache discovered in a flat in Goodwood, Cape Town. Photo: SAPS)
Twenty weapons, including an assault rifle, were linked to an arms cache discovered in the Goodwood flat. (Photo: SAPS)
Some of the firearms seized by the Western Cape police. (Photos: SAPS)
Gun pointed at cops
“The driver [subsequently] suddenly stopped the vehicle and pointed a firearm at the police members, who took action,” Swartbooi said. Two men and a woman, who tried to run away, were arrested and face charges including possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Morning of murders — eight people shot dead in Khayelitsha
The following day, Saturday, 6 July, police were in Khayelitsha, where there have been several mass shootings. They were there to crack down on gang violence when they heard gunshots nearby.
Swartbooi said officers rushed towards the sound and found a man and a woman with bullet wounds. The woman survived and was taken to hospital.
9mm pistols
Officers followed up on information they obtained at the scene and arrested a man “and confiscated a licensed 9mm pistol with ammunition and drugs”.
The man faces charges including murder and attempted murder.
Last Sunday, 7 July, news about the arms cache found in the Goodwood flat emerged.
Another Western Cape police spokesperson, Colonel Andrè Traut, said the events that led to the discovery started with a routine stop-and-search operation.
Members of the police Flying Squad, who patrol the roads, noticed a silver Ford double-cab bakkie in the suburb of Athlone and decided to search it.
“This search resulted in the discovery of an unlicensed 9mm firearm, drugs and a substantial amount of cash,” Traut said.
The driver, who is 28, was arrested and interrogated. This led police to the flat in a residential complex in Goodwood, which was also searched.
Part of the Western Cape police’s haul over one week. (Photo: SAPS)
AK-47 and drugs worth R3-million
“Here a further 19 firearms of various calibres were found, including an AK-47 assault rifle, a shotgun and other automatic and semi-automatic firearms, as well as an assortment of drugs valued at R3-million,” Traut said.
“We have reason to believe that the apartment, which is leased in the suspect’s name, was never used as a residence, but rather as a storing facility for the firearms and drugs.”
More arrests were possible.
Traut described the suspect’s arrest and the discovery of the arms cache as “a step in the right direction to tackle gangsterism in the province”.
The crackdowns continued into the evening. Another police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Pojie, said that at about 7.30pm, officers “flooded the streets” of Brown’s Farm, an area in Philippi that is notorious for violent and gun-related crime.
Some officers approached men standing at the back of a white Toyota Quantum, who then ran away.
Hiding in a roof
Pojie said one of them was traced to a nearby home while another managed to get into the roof of a house, where he hid. Four suspects were detained.
“They arrested the first suspect with a fully loaded revolver found in his possession. A female was found with a 9mm pistol next to her,” Pojie said.
“During an extended search inside the house, they found a third suspect, a male person with a 9mm pistol without a serial number. The suspect who fled over the roof was also traced and found in possession of a 9mm pistol with an extra magazine.”
Pojie said the officers extended their search based on information they gathered, which led them to premises in Gugulethu.
“Several R1 and AK-47 rounds of ammunition were discovered and seized,” he said. “The members also found a gas rifle at premises situated close by.”
Another two suspects were arrested.
Police accountability
The SAPS acted against their own recently in trying to clamp down on gun problems.
Last month, Daily Maverick reported that five police officers had been fired after being linked to a scandal involving 15 firearms that could not be accounted for, related to the police station in Mitchells Plain.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Five cops fired in ongoing Mitchells Plain ‘missing police guns’ scandal
In another recent incident, a member of the Public Order Police gave a colleague a lift home on 20 June following the memorial service of another officer, Akhona Ndzingo, in Khayelitsha.
Ndzingo was murdered in a shooting there about a week earlier.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Policeman’s firearm ‘stolen’ after attending Khayelitsha memorial for murdered cop
It is understood that after Ndzingo’s memorial on 20 June, the police officer who gave his colleague a lift home had stayed at that colleague’s house for a while socialising.
While driving home, the officer realised his work firearm, which had been under the seat of the vehicle, was no longer there.
A case of theft was registered at the Khayelitsha police station.
The Western Cape has stood out in the country for gun problems for years.
About a decade ago, South Africa’s biggest firearm smuggling investigation, codenamed Project Impi, was launched. It allegedly discovered that guns were being smuggled from within the police service, some to gangsters in the Western Cape.
That has become the core of a class-action lawsuit. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
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