COPS on the Cape Flats busted a man with a deadly homemade zip gun.
The lethal weapon was seized from a suspected gangster in Parkwood in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Zip guns are improvised firearms and are usually only capable of one round of .22 ammunition at a time.
The crude handgeweer was bymekaar gelas with an elastic band, cable ties, pieces of metal and black insulation tape.
According to police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg, the man was arrested during a patrol.
He reports: “Members of Grassy Park SAPS arrested an adult male when they caught him with a home-made zip gun with ammunition in his possession.
“The members were busy with patrols in Dove Road, Parkwood when they saw two males walking in the road who started running when they saw the police van approaching.
“One male was apprehended and upon searching him, found the zip gun in his possession.”
In an unrelated matter on the same day, cops in Manenberg arrested a 21-year-old with a 9mm pistol.
Twigg adds: “Members of Public Order Police deployed in the Manenberg area were busy with stop and search operations to fight gang violence when they stopped and searched a male who was walking in Jordan Road who tried to evade the members.
“They found a 9mm pistol with seven rounds of ammunition in his possession. The 21 year old suspect who was arrested, face charges for the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.”
The suspects will make their respective court appearances in the Athlone and Wynberg Magistrates courts once they have been charged.
According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime's Western Cape Gang Monitor, dated, March 2024, illegal guns were the catalyst for gang violence.
A report reads: “Given this cocktail of firearm illegality, gangs in the Western Cape appear to have been given access to significant quantities of guns, some of which are linked to inadequate control of firearms under the jurisdiction of the police.
“This has not only ratcheted up levels of gun violence, but also affected how gangs operate.”