Arrests have been made in connection with a burglary that was discovered about a week ago at a police base in the Western Cape where items including “non-lethal ammunition” and a “gas canister launcher” were stolen.
The break-in happened at the Public Order Police base in Faure between Strand and Stellenbosch.
It adds to cases around the country in which police premises have been targeted over the years.
Read more: Security breaches on the increase as manhunt shuffles along following assault on Pretoria SAPS building
Daily Maverick understands that on 12 August 2024, it was discovered that the Faure police premises had been burgled and that a cage in which a firearm safe was kept had been broken into.
According to information not officially released by SAPS, but which comes from within the service, stun and smoke grenades were among the stolen items.
‘Brazen burglary’
On Tuesday, Western Cape police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut announced a breakthrough in the case, saying three suspects – two men and a woman – were arrested on Monday evening.
“[Cape Town suburb of] Kleinvlei detectives joined forces with the Anti-Gang Unit to probe the circumstances surrounding a brazen incident where non-lethal ammunition and a gas canister launcher were stolen,” he said.
“The first breakthrough came on Sunday when the gas canister launcher and some of the ammunition [was] discovered abandoned next to Baden Powell Drive.”
#sapsWC An extensive pursuit for the suspects responsible for the burglary at the #SAPS Public Order Police base in Faure which was discovered a week ago led to the arrest of 2 male suspects aged 29 and 31 and a female suspect aged 44 at Kleinvlei last night. The two men face… pic.twitter.com/324nldo7zn
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) August 20, 2024
Investigations led the police team to various addresses in Kleinvlei where the arrests were carried out.
‘Ammo yet to be recovered’
More ammunition was also seized at those locations.
Traut added: “A small quantity of ammunition is yet to be recovered.”
He said the two men arrested faced housebreaking and theft charges, while the woman faced charges of possessing stolen goods and unlicensed ammunition.
The trio is expected to appear in the Blue Downs Magistrates’ Court.
Read more: Cop arrest and transfer after repeat ‘missing’ guns scandal at Cape Town gang hotspot police station
It is not the first time that criminals have targeted police premises in Faure. The same thing happened in 1998.
Guns stolen for gangsters
Among those arrested in that case was Rashied Staggie, once the Hard Livings gang boss. Staggie was murdered in the Cape Town suburb of Salt River in December 2019.
Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie with his wife on 23 September 2013, in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images / Nardus Engelbrecht)
Decades ago, while being interviewed for a documentary, he explained how corrupt police officers had worked with his gang during the apartheid years.
A 2006 Western Cape High Court judgment relating to the post-apartheid 1998 Faure burglary, said that Staggie and his co-accused had been indicted on “seven counts relating to the housebreaking and theft and the subsequent possession of large numbers of firearms and ammunition from police premises at Faure, Western Cape Province”.
Read more: Cycle of killing — Rashied Staggie’s son murdered in Cape Town gang hotspot Manenberg
In 2000, it was reported on News24 that during the case against them in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court, it was heard that: “Rashied Staggie and his cronies plotted the Faure police base raid to get weapons to help gangsters protect themselves against attacks by People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad).”
According to a 2004 Western Cape government community safety statement, an ex-cop was among Staggie’s co-accused in the Faure burglary.
Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie on 23 September 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images / Nardus Engelbrecht)
That statement outlined Staggie’s fate, saying: “Staggie was sentenced… to an effective 13 years for the theft and possession of firearms, and several rounds of ammunition at a military base in Faure.”
Mobsters and Kleinvlei claims
While it is not yet clear what the items stolen last week from the Faure base would have been used for, the suburb where the suspects were arrested – Kleinvlei – has previously been flagged as a gang hotspot.
Claims of police corruption linked to the area have also been made.
Daily Maverick previously reported on an unprecedented October 2022 Western Cape High Court judgment.
In it, Judge Daniel Thulare said evidence in a gangsterism-related case suggested that 28s gangsters and those aligned to the Mobsters gang had infiltrated the Western Cape police.
Read more: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – Untangling the Judge Thulare judgment warning of cop collusion with gangsters
A section of the judgment said that a police project was once run against the Mobsters gang. Daily Maverick has ascertained this would likely have been before 2016.
During that project, certain cops were flagged as working with the gang.
Thulare’s judgment said: “[They] were working at Kleinvlei and were on the payroll of the Mobsters gang.”
The SAPS previously said it was looking into Thulare’s judgment.
Feedback requested
On Monday 19 August, hours before the arrests in Kleinvlei of the suspects allegedly linked to the Faure burglary, the Thulare judgment cropped up again.
Parliament’s police committee chair Ian Cameron issued a statement saying he requested an update from national police commissioner Fannie Masemola on the Thulare judgment “that raised serious concerns of possible infiltration of the [SAPS] by gangs in the Western Cape”.
Cameron’s statement said the judgment was handed down in March 2022. However, the one Daily Maverick reported on was delivered in October 2022.
“The finalisation of that investigation and the prosecution of officers identified to have worked with the gangs is necessary to curtail the violence in the [Cape Flats] area,” Cameron said. DM
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