Police have 'lost' 20 429 weapons http://ewn.co.za/2014/03/22/SAPS-is-fuelling-illegal-arms-trade from the New York Times: "The police and other licensed gun carriers are often robbed and even killed for their weapons." http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/13/world/strict-gun-control-bill-advances-in-south-africa.html https://southafricatoday.net/south-africa-news/robbers-stormed-and-robbed-police-station/ "A spokesman for the Department of Safety and Security admitted that from 1990 to 1999, 14,636 firearms issued to police officers were stolen or lost. The NFF notes that “the government’s own security services have been a far greater source of stolen firearms than the private sector.” The NFF also argues that only one out of 200 armed offenses is committed with a licensed gun, clearly indicating that the legal ownership of firearms is not the source of weapons for criminals. According to “South Africa Survey 1999-2000,” a total of 29,550 weapons were stolen with 2,420 of them recovered. That’s one gun stolen per 1,373 people. The government admits that 1,802 weapons were stolen from police officers, a rate 22 times higher than among civilians" https://fee.org/articles/scapegoating-gun-owners-in-south-africa/ It's estimated well over 70% of reports of robberies against police officers are not real. They're pocketing the money. Sometimes even otherwise honest officers can give into temptation when they're facing a personal financial emergency, since they're not paid very well in most parts of South Africa.It's not even extremely uncommon for entire local police departments to be in together on the scheme. Some further background on the situation in country In South Africa in the past 27 years there have been horrific racially-motivated attacks against whites on a massive scale. The perpetrators are rarely caught, and there have been accusations in many cases that the local police do not care. Meanwhile, the Black-led government has been busy trying to disarm the population. It is not an outright gun ban, but the government has passed every other possible law to attack gun ownership. Only one self-defence gun is allowed per person, and that gun can only be a handgun or manually-loaded shotgun. Ownership of a firearm without a license is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and license applications most commonly take over 4 years to be "processed", and once a license is granted it is only valid for 5 or 10 years (depending on the license category). The government essentially reserves the right to deny a license to an individual for any reason (using the legal terms "lack of good motivation" and "risk of becoming violent" as excuses). While these restrictions seem to be more targeted at poor Blacks in the cities, they also affect white communities, leaving them vulnerable. The whites in the cities have formed enclaves with high walls to protect themselves, not uncommonly with electric fences. The police forces are drastically understaffed. The police take hours to respond to burglary calls. Sometimes a burglary victim who has captured the burglar may be told to take the burglar to the police station himself, because the police cannot send someone out. Yet, despite this, those in the cities are often denied licenses, with the justification that they do not need guns because there is a police presence to protect them. This has led to predictable effects, with whites being targeted with home invasions, execution, and torture. In the 60s and 70s, South Africa was considered the only "First World" country on the African continent, had a high per capita GDP than any other African country, and a higher total GDP than any other country in the African continent except Egypt, and that was only because Egypt had 6 times the population.
