Pretoria – The South African Police Service (SAPS) in Mpumalanga has arrested a 67-year-old man and recovered an AK-47 assault rifle with ammunition.
The man was arrested in the early hours of Thursday, before 1am, at Tonga near Komatipoort, according to Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli.
“According to the reports, the SAPS members from Tactical Response Team (TRT) in Pienaar, as well as members from the White River K9 Unit, received details through intelligence about a suspicious man in possession of a prohibited firearm,” said Mdhluli.
He said the “astute” police officers followed up on the information. and they cornered the man at his residential place.
“A search was then conducted where police discovered the said rifle as well as ammunition. The man was apprehended and charged for possession of unlawful firearm and ammunition,” said Mdhluli.
The 67-year-old man on Thursday appeared before the Nkomazi Magistrate's Court in Tonga, and he was released on bail. The case was postponed to 14 October.
Meanwhile, provincial commissioner of the South African Police Service in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Manamela, has welcomed the arrest.
Manamela highlighted that the proliferation of unlawful firearms has an “extreme impact” on violent crimes, and the police in the province are now focusing on removing all deadly weapons in order to address the situation.
Manamela also encouraged members of the public to continue alerting the authorities about firearms being circulated in society before such weapons are used by criminals to take innocent lives.
The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova, is an assault rifle developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947. It is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov family of rifles, and has been widely used by criminals in South Africa and in terrorist attacks in different parts of the world.
African News Agency (ANA)