Staff Writer

South African police say that about 174 guns – Berettas, Brownings, Walther P38s, and CZ75s – used by Cape Town gangs were stolen from the Namibian police.

A report by the Sunday Times says Berettas fetch anything between R15,000 and R25,000 per firearm on the black market because of their reliability and quality.

The Namibian police confirmed losing more than 90 guns in November 2021.

In March 2022, four officers – Loini Shoondi (56), Kavari Mutuari (34), Fredericks Jacobus Vilonel Petrus (60), and Laban Hoveka Uaundjua (57) – appeared in the Katutura Magistrate’s Court in connection with the missing guns.

Two are inspectors, while the other two are warrant officers stationed at the Namibian Police’s central depot in Windhoek.

Police Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga told The Villager on Sunday that there is a high possibility that guns stolen from Namibian police are being used by South African gangs.

“We know that a Namibian citizen was arrested with some guns, and he is still in custody. We suspect some of the guns are the police guns we are looking for,” Ndeitunga said.

The report published on Sunday further says the culprits in the gun smuggling are the Namibians who broke into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm and stole millions of United States dollars in February 2020.

Former spy boss Arthur Fraser said Namibians Errki Shikongo and Urbanus Shaumbwako, Petrus Muhekeni, Imanuwela David, and Petrus Afrikaner broke into Ramaphosa’s farmhouse.

In June this year, the Sunday Times quoted Shikongo admitting that he is a criminal who smuggles gold, guns, and dollars between Namibia, Angola and South Africa.

“That’s how I make all that money. If you want to trade dollars for something else in Angola, you can buy dollars there. There is a place where you can exchange for dollars,” Shikongo told the Sunday Times then.

According to the Sunday Times, the stolen guns from the Namibian police have given Cape Town gangs a source for quality guns after the arrest and the prosecution of former SA police Col Christiaan Prinsloo in 2016.

Prinsloo stole thousands of police guns which he sold to gangs in Cape Town.

The South African Hawks discovered that the guns used were from Namibia after a high-speed chase in October 2020 that led to Dunoon township, the confiscation of 12 nine-millimetre pistols, and the arrest of Shaumbwako.

The Sunday Times says Shaumbwako’s close friend told them he was smuggling the guns for a Namibian gun-smuggling racket that gets the weapons from corrupt police officers.

The paper further quotes the friend saying Shaumbwako received R115,000 from a contact in Namibia who smuggles guns using his fleet of luxury cars to cross the border.

The payment was for Shaumbwako to deliver 12 guns to Cape Town gangs.

The guns believed to have been stolen from the Namibian police and seized from Shaumbwako in Cape Town included Beretta 92 handguns and Browning Hi-Power handguns.

Ndeitunga also told The Villager that the Namibian was arrested with 12 guns.

Shaumbwako is expected to stand for trial in the Cape Town Regional Court on July 19 this year.

When the Hawks arrested Shaumbwako, he was driving a VW Polo that belonged to Shikongo, with whom he shared a house in Table View, Cape Town.

A source told the Sunday Times that the Hawks couldn’t find out from where the guns went missing since there was only the NPW insignia to work with.

The source is quoted saying that when the Hawks gave [the Namibian police] two firearms to test, they realised the weapons were theirs and that lots of their guns were missing.

“It was only after a year that they realised the 12 firearms [allegedly smuggled by Shaumbwako] were theirs,” the source said.

However, the paper said, as more Namibian police firearms started being recovered in Cape Town’s gangland, and after a year-long bail testimony in the case against Shaumbwako, the Namibian police eventually shared a list of missing firearms with the police’s Western Cape firearms, liquor and second-hand goods control department.

The Sunday Times source said the Namibian police list of missing guns showed 35 Berettas, three Brownings, 21 Walther P38s, and 115 CZ75s.

Ndeitunga said they share information from time to time with their South African counterparts.

“We usually submit lists of guns to request assistance in recovering stolen guns,” Ndeitunga said.