By Umamah Bakharia

A Hawks audit into the Norwood Police Station evidence store revealed that 158 firearms have been stolen.

They include rifles such as state issued R1, 4 and 5s as well as AK-47s.

The investigation was sparked when police officers arrived at a robbery scene last year where a shoot out took between the SAPS and the robbers and an officer was killed. Investigations found that the fire arm used for the murder was linked back to the Norwood Police Station.

Three senior police officials face possible charges after a final audit was released.

Radio Islam spoke to SA Gunowner Association’s Chairperson, Damian Enslin on the Norwood SAPS gun theft.

“Its a systemic problem within the police service that the training and accountability of the police is just going down in itself with the lack of training and abilities [of] the police to educate and train their own police officers,” says Enslin.

He says that we are not only dealing with negligence of the SAPS but complexity or corruption at place by the police themselves.

Since 2009, the South African Gunowners Association (SAGA) has reported that there have been missing or stolen firearms from the SAPS, however, in the recent years, the number of gun theft cases from the SAPS has increased.