Gauteng police seize major arms cache

The seizure of an arms cache, including rocket launchers, limpet mines, and assault rifles in Gauteng, was “the best Christmas and New Year’s present”, National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele said on Tuesday.

‘This is the best Christmas and New Year present I could have asked for,” he said in a statement following the find at a house in Mukhari Street, Katlehong, east of Johannesburg.

Cele said he was confident the police would make arrests soon.

National police spokesperson Colonel Vishnu Naidoo said a woman was taken in for questioning.

“The investigation has roped in various experts of the SAPS including forensics and investigators to determine the source of the artillery, which may possibly lead to other such arms caches,” Naidoo said.

Police made the find when investigators acted on intelligence which led them to an out-building of the house.

Firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were also found.

The cache includes five mini limpet mines, four detonators, two rocket launchers, six F1 hand grenades, one CSC rifle grenade, two AK-47 rifles, three Uzi sub-machine guns, one R1 rifle, one .303 rifle and one silencer.

Ammunition includes, AK-47 rounds, R1 rounds, R5 rounds, 9mm rounds, shotgun rounds and .38 revolver rounds. A number of gold bracelets were also found among the arms.

‘These people have accrued this stash of arms for one thing only and that is to wage war, and you have done very well to detect them, possibly averting very serious crimes from being committed”, Cele was quoted as saying to police officers.

The City of Ekurhuleni commended police and “condemned this lawlessness”.

“As a metro we condemn any form of lawlessness and fully support the zero-tolerance approach to crime displayed by the security agencies of this country, especially in this morning’s discovery,” member of the mayoral committee for community safety, councillor Mthuthuzeli Siboza said in a statement.

“Our metro police is going to work very closely with the SAPS to ensure that whoever is responsible and/or involved in this act of lawlessness is put behind bars where they belong.”—Sapa