Cape Town - A mother handed a copy of the Daily Voice to Deputy Police Minister Bongani Mkongi at an imbizo with communities and said he should educate himself about his officers who are “helping gangsters to kill” after 35 guns disappeared from two cop shops.
In a shocking admission, Mkongi said his own men are stealing guns at police stations.
Mkongi and Western Cape Police Commissioner Khombinkosi Jula met over 2000 members of various neighbourhood watches and NGOs from across the Cape Flats at Mount View High in Hanover Park on Friday.
They have called on police to intervene following a spike in gang-related crimes recently, which have claimed the lives of several gangsters and innocent bystanders.
Last week, provincial police revealed that 15 police-issue 9mm firearms were unaccounted for at Mitchells Plain Police Station, while 20 exhibit firearms went missing at Bellville Police Station.
Vanessa Adriaanse questioned the deputy minister's dirty cops. Picture: Jack Lestrade
Heideveld mother and community worker, Vanessa Adriaanse, walked straight up to Mkongi on stage and told him that police had blood on their hands.
“I bought you the Daily Voice. Before you get into your uniform, you are a father and a mother, how can you help the gangsters to kill?” she demanded.
“How can the guns go missing? You help them to kill. You want us to be the whistle-blowers, but you are selling the guns to the gangsters.”
A large crowd attended the Hanover Park imbizo. Picture: Jack Lestrade
Mkongi admitted the men in blue were stealing police firearms.
“These firearms that you [the media] have reported on, they did not just disappear, they were stolen by our own members,” he said.
He added that any police member found to be involved with the sale of firearms would face the consequences of the law.
Mkongi says his visit was part of a long-term crime blitz which started in Atlantis where police made over 30 arrests.
“They must know that we are going to squeeze them, we are hunting them down,” he warned.
Moulana Toha Roderiques Picture: Jack Lestrade
Religious leader, Moulana Toha Roderiques, told Mkongi they had lost all hope after 17 people were murdered in Hanover Park in the past month, and called for the leadership of the local Community Policing Forum to be changed.
Joanie Fredericks, chairperson of the Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum, slammed cops for their “poor” investigations and called for sexual offenders to be monitored for life.
“We need to have community leaders on the parole board as we see these cases involve previous offenders,” she said.
She also called on specialised police units to be re-established as detectives are investigating as many as 100 cases at a time.