Johannesburg - A cash-in-transit security company says it is conducting an internal investigation after military police searched its Midrand cash centre earlier this week and found ammunition believed to have come from the military.
SBV Services, which is owned by the country’s four major banks, was searched on Monday, after the military police received information that ammunition allegedly stolen from the military and sold to Dave Sheer Guns had been sold on to SBV.
The raid followed a series of exposés by The Star amid an investigation into Dave Sheer Guns, the biggest firearm and ammunition trader in Africa.
The investigation, conducted by the Hawks and forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan, is into allegations of police bribery, stolen military ammunition and fraudulent export permits.
The military police arrested two soldiers and one civilian for allegedly stealing the ammunition and, last week, arrested a director and general manager at Dave Sheer Guns.
Two brigadiers at the Central Firearms Registry, Brigadier Mathapelo Miriam Mangwani and Brigadier Hlamane Elias Mahlabane, were suspended without pay for their alleged involvement in issuing gun licences to Dave Sheer Guns in exchange for bribes.
Grant Dunnington, the chief executive of SBV Services, said they had been making use of Dave Sheer Guns after the company won a tender in 2010 to supply SBV with ammunition used for training and operational purposes.
Dunnington said the reason they did not let the military into the secure compound immediately was that they had certain processes and procedures that needed to be followed when allowing someone onto the premises because of the security risk inherent to SBV’s operations.
He said a 24-hour notice period was required to authorise access for visitors to the premises.
He admitted that the investigators had removed ammunition suspected to be of military origin, but said an investigation into this was still pending.
He said the group’s risk and governance department was conducting an internal investigation, and SBV would co-operate with the police and defence force.
The Star