The opposition Democratic Alliance said Tuesday that more than 2,000 guns have been stolen from the South African police in the past four years.
The party in a statement on Tuesday said: “the reality is that the South African Police Service is fuelling the illegal arms trade.
“Thousands of SAPs firearms have been stolen over the past 20 years, and are out there in the hands of criminals shooting at the police, and at you and me”.
The party said police should be made to pay for firearms they lose, and any police involved in corruption must be investigated.
“This situation is utterly unacceptable and makes a mockery of the fight against crime,’’ the DA said in the statement.
According to the latest statistics, police recorded a total of 19,016 murders between April 2016 and March 2017.