Families of the eleven suspects arrested on Tuesday in connection with the disappearance of a number of weapons from the Engineering Formation at the Lyttelton Tek Base had an agonising Christmas after they were denied to visit them in detention, their attorney Brian Plaatjies alleged. Plaatjies, a former senior military judge, will be representing 10 out of the 11 suspects when they apply for bail in the military court in Thaba Tshwane on Friday.

Plaatjies said the suspects, in detention since their arrest on Tuesday, were initially denied their constitutional rights to receive visitors: 

“When I went to the military police station [on Tuesday], I was told it’s ‘orders from above’ that nobody can visit them,” he said, adding that, under the law, those who are in detention should be allowed visits by a legal representative even after hours. Plaatjies said on Christmas day the worried family members were allowed a mere five-minute visit, which was too short. Plaatjies said he managed to speak to his clients in the military police station for around “thirty or forty minutes” before he was interrupted by military police and told to leave. 

Rear Admiral Mokgadi Maphoto is currently serving as Provost Marshal General in charge of military police. 

By the time of going to press, Dlamini was not able to confirm the court appearance or react to the allegations on visitation rights. Meanwhile, sources from within the South African National Defence Force, who declined to be named, said it appears that the break-in was carefully planned from within, and executed over a period of 80 days. The last stocktake at this specific weapons store is said to have been done at the end of September, and an engineer was placed in charge of the weapons stores instead of logistics personnel. The engineer was on leave for three weeks when the weapons disappeared. From the outside, the weapon stores appear locked, but behind the doors, there was “chaos”, one source said. 

The source also said the weapons were stolen without their closing locks and ammunition, which could indicate that the robbery was still in process when they were caught. The weapons could not be immediately usable without these components.

Security inside the weapons stores is supposed to be tight, with two keys held by two separate people necessary to open these. MP Thabo Mmutle, the whip of the ANC’s study group on Defence and Military Veterans, said in a statement the study group welcomed the fact that the SANDF apprehended the suspects. 

“We strongly condemn this act of criminality,” Mmutle said. “It is horrific to imagine the safety of the public when there are dangerous warfare weapons on the streets and this poses a serious safety risk to citizens and leaves much to be desired about the security of the Republic,” he said. 

Mmutle said the study group would persuade Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans to initiate its own investigation into the matter. 

“As a country, we cannot afford a scenario where criminals go to the extent of undermining the integrity of our Defence Force,” he said.

DA MP Kobus Marais, the party’s spokesperson on defence, said the act was “a stark reminder of earlier thefts of similar weapons at the 9SAI military base outside Cape Town, as well as the use of similar military rifles in various bank and cash-in-transit heists.” He said it “exposes the deterioration of the defence capabilities of the SANDF under the ANC”. Marais in his statement also claimed 19 R4 automatic rifles were stolen, but this has not been confirmed by the SANDF. The Citizen reported the weapons were recovered in Hammanskraal, but there has been no official confirmation of this.

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said in her ministry’s statement on Tuesday that the weapons theft was an “utterly cowardice (sic) act of betrayal committed against the Defence Force of the Republic”. She said 11 suspects were under “high-level investigation” and that she was in constant consultations with the Chief of the SANDF on the matter. She has also instructed that members of the Military Command Council and the relevant command structures have their leave cancelled to ensure that military infrastructure was secured “and to give assurance that the citizens are and feel safe”, according to the statement. 

Perhaps more than wanting to know how this happened, the big question is what the thieves planned to do with these? DM