Pretoria - Johannesburg Central police officers arrested a 17-year-old boy for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, spokesman Captain Xoli Mbele said on Monday.
The teenager was arrested at corner Wanderers and De Villiers Street on Friday evening, Mbele said.
He was subsequently taken to a place of safety “because of his age”.
“Police were busy with their stop and search operations when they received information about suspicious three males standing in the above mentioned streets. They searched them and recovered an unlicensed firearm with no serial number and live rounds from one of the males,” said Mbele.
The teenager told police that his uncle had given him the firearm.
“The firearm will be sent for ballistic testing to ascertain if it was used in the commission of other serious and violent crimes. Investigation is underway and the suspect is appearing today (Monday) in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court,” said Mbele.
The Johannesburg central police station commander Brigadier Ivan Perumal had commended the good working relationship between the police and the community, Mbele added.
In September, the SAPS in Johannesburg central arrested four suspects between the ages of 24 to 31 who were found in possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition at the Wanderers taxi rank.
At the time, Mbele said police were carrying out routine crime prevention duties when they noticed two suspicious people standing in the queue for Klerksdorp taxis. When they saw the police, the pair tried to get away but were cornered.
Upon searching them, police recovered a firearm from one man and ammunition from the other.
In another unrelated incident at the same taxi rank, police spotted another two suspects who haphazardly changed directions when they noticed the officers. They were stopped and searched, leading to the recovery of a firearm and ammunition.
IOL