It's war: deputy police minister speaks out on Cape gangs

Top SAPS officials will not develop a special policy to address gangs in the Western Cape.

On Thursday Deputy Minister of Police‚ Bongani Mkongi‚ said a national strategy had to be developed to fight the scourge which had seen gangsters line the pockets of ''weak officers'' throughout the country.

He emphasised that the Western Cape is "not an island‚ it is a province''. But this does not mean they do not take the threat seriously in Western Cape.

Mkongi‚ along with the provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khombinkosi Elvis Jula‚ addressed media ahead of his community engagement on the Cape Flats on Friday.

Jula confirmed that recently firearms had been stolen from the Bellville South Police Station and said the matter is under investigation.

But Mkongi revealed that was "an inside job".

"There is only one consequence for any police officer that is committing crime. He does not belong in the blue uniform‚ he belongs in the orange uniform‚'' said Mkongi.

"You can't steal state property whereas you've take an oath. That is mutiny … you are hugging the hyena‚ you are sleeping with the devil.''

They are concerned that the guns might land up with gangsters who‚ said Mkongi‚ are behind many of the murders in the Western Cape.

But he vowed to fight.

"We are committed in this fight … you cannot go into war having possibilities of defeat … we are planning victory‚'' he said.