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Smoking guns — how SA’s failure to control firearms is enabling organised crime

Testimony before the Madlanga Commission and parliamentary ad hoc committee has exposed how organised crime has infiltrated law enforcement. But this infiltration has been greatly facilitated by the breakdown in firearms control.
Stanley Maphosa
By Stanley Maphosa
30 Oct 2025
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An AK-47 and three pistols recovered from suspects in the April 2024 murder of engineer Armand Swart became more than just evidence. They became a smoking gun exposing the depth of police corruption and collusion with organised crime. When these firearms were forensically analysed and linked to multiple murders, they revealed what KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi described in his testimony to the Madlanga Commission as a sophisticated criminal network with “significant access to finance”. 

This discovery sparked the establishment of both the Madlanga Commission and the Parliamentary ad hoc committee that is currently investigating allegations of criminality and political interference in South Africa’s criminal justice system.

While these proceedings have captivated the nation with testimony about political interference and syndicate infiltration, insufficient attention has been paid to a critical enabler of this crisis: the historic, systematic breakdown of South Africa’s firearms management system.

As Gun Free South Africa’s recent submission to the parliamentary ad hoc committee details, this breakdown manifests across three devastating areas: corruption in firearms record-keeping tenders, fraud at the Central Firearms Registry, and the leaking of police-held firearms to criminals.

Decades of corruption in firearms record-keeping


The rot runs deep and stretches back decades. Consider the Waymark Infotech tender of 2004, which cost taxpayers R412-million (ballooning from an initial R42-million), yet failed to deliver a working firearms management system. Despite questions raised about the tender award process and the Auditor-General’s findings of fruitless expenditure, not a single official was held accountable, while a Hawks investigation seems to have quietly died. Fast forward to today, and there are serious concerns that the current Providence Software Solutions contract will mirror past failures, with insufficient parliamentary oversight to prevent another expensive debacle. This record-keeping chaos creates the perfect conditions for criminals to thrive. 

The Central Firearms Registry reported figures for state-owned firearms in 2022 that differed by 1.3 million weapons. This is a discrepancy so vast that it beggars belief. Between 2022 and 2024, police owned firearms numbers changed by 155,000. Without accurate records it becomes impossible to track firearms, identify losses or hold officials accountable.

Fraud at the Central Firearms Registry


Into this chaos step corrupt officials and organised criminals. Since 2010, documented corruption has enabled gang leaders and underworld figures to fraudulently obtain firearm licences. The case of alleged 28s gang leader Ralph Stanfield, who obtained Dedicated Sport Shooter status through fraudulent applications at Olifantsfontein SAPS after being repeatedly refused in the Western Cape, has languished in courts since 2018. Similarly, alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack’s firearm fraud case remains unresolved despite his 2020 arrest alongside eight police officers. 

Documented corruption has also enabled private security companies implicated in political killings and taxi violence to access firearm licences, while one of South Africa’s largest gun dealers has been identified as being at the centre of a large-scale corruption racket involving bribery and creating fraudulent permits to export weapons and ammunition to conflict countries including Sudan and Syria. Here too the Hawks investigation seems to have died. 

Police arming criminals


Police are not merely facilitating the paperwork for firearms to reach criminals. In too many cases, they are the source of these firearms. The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (where the Madlanga Commission has heard allegations of collusion with Vusimuzi Matlala) cannot account for more than 1,000 firearms from its armoury. Norwood Police Station was first implicated in firearms diversion in 2014, yet continued leaking weapons until at least 2022, when 175 firearms, including AK-47s and R5 rifles, went missing. Most infamously, former police colonel Chris Prinsloo stole more than 2,000 firearms meant for destruction and sold them to criminals. These “Prinsloo guns” have been forensically linked to at least 2,784 crimes in the Western Cape alone, including 1,066 murders, of which 187 were children.

Not all failures in firearms management necessarily stem from criminal intent. It is likely that the fast-tracking of more than one million firearm applications in just nine months during 2010 and 2011 was driven by target setting in an attempt to address backlogs. However, this is likely to have compromised the vetting processes, creating loopholes that criminals readily exploited. Gun Free SA has repeatedly called for an audit of licences granted during this period to ensure that no unfit persons, those with criminal records or gang affiliations, were licensed. This call has been ignored.

Suppressed reports and lack of accountability


Two official reports documenting systemic failures in firearms management remain suppressed: a 2010 Task Team report and a 2013 Committee of Inquiry report commissioned by the late police minister Nathi Mthethwa (whom Mkhwanazi has accused of political interference). Despite Gun Free SA’s attempts to access these documents through the Promotion of Access to Information Act, they have not been released; with allegations suggesting that they too badly implicate SAPS in criminality.

The recent testimony before the Madlanga Commission and parliamentary ad hoc committee has exposed how organised crime has infiltrated law enforcement. But this infiltration has been greatly facilitated by the breakdown in firearms control. This breakdown is characterised by failed IT systems, missing firearms, fraudulent licensing and a complete absence of accountability. One must question both the extent to which and the reasons that this continued breakdown is allowed to persist, because it clearly benefits criminals.

With 33 South Africans shot dead every day, we cannot afford to treat firearms management as a mere administrative function. It is a critical crime-fighting tool. The Madlanga Commission and parliamentary ad hoc committee must prioritise four urgent actions as described in detail in our submission to the committee:

First, establish effective firearm record-keeping as the foundation of all firearms control. This means ensuring the Providence Software Solutions contract is delivered without corruption, with rigorous oversight and regular public reporting.

Second, gather comprehensive evidence on the extent of firearm-related criminality, from tender fraud to firearm and ammunition leakage, to understand the full scope of the crisis.

Third, establish genuine accountability. Corrupt officials must face serious consequences. Cases like Stanfield’s must be prioritised for prosecution rather than languishing for more than a decade.

Fourth, strengthen legislative frameworks, including both policy and enforcement. This includes mandating regular public audits of official firearms stockpiles, closing the Dedicated Sport Shooter loophole that allows unlimited firearms, and ensuring the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority has the resources to conduct comprehensive, unannounced inspections of private security companies.

The firearms recovered from Swart’s killers opened a door into South Africa’s underworld. But they also revealed something equally troubling: that the state institutions meant to control firearms have been so thoroughly compromised that they have become suppliers to the very criminals they should be stopping. Until we address this systemic failure with the seriousness it demands, the smoking guns will keep firing. DM