Mthatha security boss held after 140 guns seized, 135 missing

A 60-year-old Mthatha businessman has been arrested for allegedly contravening the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000 after a South African Police Service compliance inspection at the head office of his security company, where 140 firearms were seized and a further 135 could not be accounted for.

According to the SAPS statement, members of Operation Buyisa carried out the inspection earlier this week and found that firearms registered in the name of the security company were not recorded in the company’s stock register. At the time of the inspection, the businessman was found in possession of a company firearm without the required permit, which SAPS says constitutes a contravention of Section 3(1)(a) of the Act.

The statement records that the businessman was already out on bail in connection with an attempted murder case involving a police official in July 2026. It is alleged that he discharged a firearm inside a tent during a traditional occasion, wounding an off-duty police official. That matter remains before the courts and is unproven.

He is expected to appear before the Mthatha Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 29 September 2026 for a formal bail application following this week’s inspection.

The seized firearms will undergo ballistic testing to establish whether any were used in the commission of other serious and violent crimes. That testing is the step most likely to matter to the public, because a weapon recovered from a security company’s stock can be linked to an unsolved case only through ballistics.

SAPS says it continues to conduct compliance inspections to enforce the Firearms Control Act and to prevent the proliferation and unlawful use of firearms. The figure at the centre of this case, 135 firearms unaccounted for, is the clearest measure of what those inspections are meant to catch.

This report is based on the SAPS media statement, which is a summary of the inspection and the charges rather than the court record itself. The allegations against the businessman have not been tested in court.

Source: South African Police Service (SAPS), Mthatha businessman arrested for alleged Firearms Control Act violations, 140 firearms seized