Floppy the police dog just before his disappearance. (Photo: Supplied) The Eastern Cape police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Vuyisile Ncata, has appealed for help after one of the police’s patrol dogs, Floppy, went missing on Friday after he was sent in pursuit of robbers who tried to hide in dense bush outside Mdantsane, Buffalo City.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Nobuntu Gantana said the three armed suspects, who robbed a school, remain at large. She said shots were fired at the scene where Floppy went missing, but the dog has not been found dead or alive.
“The suspects are considered extremely dangerous,” Gantana said.
She explained that on Friday morning three armed men entered Nzuzo Primary School and took 20 laptops and 15 cellphones.
“The suspects also took the headmaster’s black Peugeot vehicle before fleeing the scene,” she said.
“The Mdantsane Flying Squad responded swiftly and recovered the headmaster’s vehicle approximately 1km from the school. Suspects were seen running into the bushes next to a nearby dam. The K9 Unit was summoned, and patrol dog Floppy and his handler cornered the suspects in dense bush.
“When the suspects ran further into thick vegetation, the handler released the dog to apprehend them. Shortly thereafter, the handler heard a suspect shouting from inside the bush, followed by the sound of gunshots,” Gantana said. More police members arrived on the scene to assist, but they have been unable to find Floppy or the suspects, she added.
Public offered drone searches
She said members of the public offered the use of their drones to help look for Floppy. But despite an extensive search on Saturday, the dog has not been found.
“We are deeply concerned for the safety of our K9, Floppy, who was bravely performing his duty. We urge anyone who may have seen Floppy, or who has any information on the whereabouts of the three suspects now at large, to come forward immediately,” Ncata said.
Gantana said Floppy was wearing his SAPS harness at the time of his disappearance.
Shortage of police dogs
Earlier this year the Eastern Cape police asked for donations of dogs to be trained as police dogs, saying a critical shortage of suitable dogs was impairing essential crime-fighting, search-and-rescue and detection operations across the province.
At the time the officers explained that for patrol dogs, like Floppy, they were looking for animals that display a prey drive with predatory sequence, which is associated with controlled aggression necessary for suspect apprehension and protection work.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Sergeant-Nichola-Kotze-with-K9-Dina.jpg "Sergeant Nichola Kotze of Khowa K9 Unit Eastern Cape with her dog Dina on the scene of the building collapse in George, 8 May 2024. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)")
South Africa currently has a shortage of police dogs. In 2025, in an answer to Parliament, the police said they currently had 1,224 handlers and 679 police dogs.
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia further said in a written answer to a parliamentary question in March this year that they were procuring dogs, and R25-million had been allocated to procure dogs over the past five financial years.
But, he explained, there were various reasons for the police dog shortage, including dogs being boarded due to chronic medical conditions (cancer and old-age degeneration) as well as acute medical conditions, injuries and being killed on duty.
“The interruption of the breeding programme due to the outbreak of the parvovirus epidemic at the SAPS K9 Breeding Centre in September 2019 and July 2020, increased the backlog. The Covid-19 pandemic brought about a negative influence on the dog training and pre-training programmes, which led to the increased backlog on capacitating the K9 Units. Procurement measures were taken to replace the dogs that are disposed. However, due to the age distribution of the current complement of dogs, the rate of disposal is inverse to the replacement rate,” Cachalia added.
He said that in 2023/24 only 14 of the 98 puppies that were bred by the police were found suitable for training. Of those, 10 had been trained and were operational while four were on course to becoming operational.
In the 2024/25 financial year, a total of 62 puppies were bred, of which 13 were found suitable for training. Three were trained and are operational, while the remaining 10 are on course to be operational. In the current financial year, 54 puppies were bred, and will only be assessed at one year old. DM