Tonga man in possession of AK-47 and ammo arrested
The arrest was made in the early hours on Thursday morning in Tonga, near Komatipoort.
A 67-year-old man was arrested following the discovery of an AK-47 rifle with ammunition at his home in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The provincial police spokesperson, Col Donald Mdhluli, said the Pienaar police’s Tactical Response Team and White River K9 Unit made the arrest at about 00:45 on Thursday September 9, after having received intelligence on the matter.
It led the police to the 67-year-old man’s house, which they searched.
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“The police discovered the rifle as well as ammunition. The man was apprehended and charged for possession of an unlawful firearm and ammunition,” said Mdhluli.
The man appeared in the Nkomazi Magistrate’s Court on Thursday; he was granted bail and the case was postponed to October 14.
Albert Gryvenstein of Bossies Community Justice said he and another entity who did not want to be named, had been working on gathering information on the man for the past few months.
“Once we verified the information, we approached the police,” said Gryvenstein.
“We want to thank them and the other entity for all their assistance in the matter.”
The provincial police commissioner, Lt Gen Semakaleng Manamela, welcomed the arrest. She indicated that the proliferation of unlawful firearms has an extreme impact on violent crimes, thus the police are focusing on removing all deadly weapons in order to address the situation.
Manamela also encouraged members of the public to continue alerting the authorities about firearms being circulated in society before such weapons are used by criminals to take an innocent life.
