The police are facing a class action lawsuit over an ex-cop who sold guns to skollies on the Cape Flats that “killed 187 children”.
Gun Free SA (GFSA) is headed to the Western Cape High Court with a case against Police Minister Bheki Cele, seeking damages arising from deaths and injuries due to corruption and negligent firearms management.
GFSA claims in its lawsuit that SAPS are accountable for crimes committed by former colonel Christiaan Prinsloo, who confessed to selling more than 2 000 guns in police stores to gang leaders on the Cape Flats.
Prinsloo, who was involved in the illegal gun trade, was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment after entering into a plea agreement with the State at the Bellville Magistrate’s Court in 2016.
GFSA said that since 2016, police records show that “Prinsloo’s guns” have been used in at least 1 066 murders, and that 187 children were killed by criminals using a “Prinsloo gun”.
Las month, while delivering the crime statistics from October to December 2022, Cele said there was evidence that guns were stolen from the police and households, reports Cape Argus.
Litigants in the class action include the parents and guardians of children who were injured, dependents of victims killed, and those who survived a shooting with a Prinsloo gun.
Several families have already given witness statements and work continues to identify further claimants, said Gunfree SA.
It said the police had failed to ensure South Africa had a strong and effective weapons and ammunition management system in place and this had enabled Prinsloo to steal guns and leak them into communities for years, undetected.