Cape Town - A police officer has been arrested for theft and corruption relating to the theft of 18 firearms at a Bellville police station, the Hawks confirmed on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old constable from the Bellville South Community Service Centre (CSC) was arrested by the Hawks’ National Bureau for Illegal Firearms Control and Priority violent crime.
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi explained the sequence of events leading to the arrest.
"Two firearms were seized by SAPS Vispol members from two suspects on separate incidents in September 2017 and another in April 2018 respectively.
"Further investigations by the Hawks revealed that the two firearms were among the 18 that were reportedly stolen at Bellville South SAPS in August 2017."
Mulaudzi added that: "Several firearms handed in as exhibits and deemed for destruction apparently went missing from a storeroom at the Bellville South police station".
The constable was then accused of having participated in the theft of the firearms, said Mulaudzi.
He added that the missing weapons are at the centre of a police investigation.
The officer is expected to appear at Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.