Africa-Press – South-Africa. Nine families affected by crimes committed by guns stolen by two senior police officers from its armoury have joined a class action seeking damages and costs from Police Minister Bheki Cele.
Papers to apply for certification were lodged in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday in a bid for some sort of justice for their loved ones, injured or killed by firearms pilfered and sold to criminals.
Gun Free SA took aim at launching the class action three years ago, through their community contacts tracing families affected by gun violence linked to the firearms stolen from the police armoury and sold by two police colonels, Christiaan Prinsloo and David Naidoo.
Referencing police reports based on forensic data, it laid bare that between 2007 and June 2016, guns stolen by the two were used in the commission of at least 2 784 crimes in the Western Cape alone – of which 1 066 were murders and 1 403 attempted murders.
And according to police reports, as of 2016, as many as 1 012 of those firearms were still in circulation.
The victims were being represented pro bono by Norton Rose Fulbright, with Wim Trengove SC and Riaz Itzkin leading their case.
Gun Free SA chairperson Yolande Baker said the decision to institute legal action was not taken lightly, but was the only viable option for recourse of the umpteen families affected by crimes committed with the guns, which were in the police’s store for destruction.
The lawsuit was considered the most appropriate way to hold the police accountable for damages resulting from their “corrupt and negligent firearm management”, the organisation said, maintaining that the police were accountable for the crimes committed by the two colonels.
Arguing that the resultant crimes were because of police corruption and negligence in managing the firearms in their care, Gun Free SA contends that the police minister is vicariously liable for the actions of his employees.
Prinsloo and Naidoo were said to have exploited a gap in the integrated ballistics identification system and established a lucrative but deadly business in the trade of illegal guns, with their main customers being gangs on the Cape Flats.
Police enabled these crimes to go undetected by not having a strong and effective weapons and ammunition management system, the organisation contends.
Prinsloo, a commander of the Gauteng Firearm, Liquor and Second Hand Goods Control, was handed an 18-year jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to more than 20 charges of racketeering, corruption and money laundering in 2016, related to the theft of over 2 000 firearms from the armoury between 2007 and 2015.
His crimes were uncovered during a special gun smuggling investigation called Operation Impi, launched 10 years ago after guns meant to be in the possession of the police were found to be circulating in Cape Town, with the identification numbers filed off in the exact same way.
Prinsloo, who apparently provided detailed information on the syndicate, was released from prison on parole in 2020 after serving less than a third of his sentence.
Notice of the class action has been given to the minister and police management.
The nine families comprises children who were either killed or injured and are represented by their parents/guardians; adults who were murdered and are represented by their family; and injured adults, who represent themselves.
They charge that the police are at fault for “failing to uphold its constitutional, statutory, and international obligations, which allowed Prinsloo and Naidoo to steal and distribute guns and ammunition undetected and for years”.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said previously that the police would wait for the normal court processes to unfold.
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