However, it came to light that training is not without challenges since a lack of ammunition had caused firearm training to be cancelled or postponed in many instances.

It was made known that the North West, to date, had 76 of their firearm training sessions cancelled or postponed indefinitely due to a lack of ammunition.

This statement comes after Petrus Johannes Groenewald, current parliamentary leader of the Freedom Front Plus, asked Police Minister, Bheki Cele, whether any firearm training had ever been cancelled amid a shortage of ammunition.

The department also made known that in the Free State, seven firearm training sessions were affected in this regard while no such incident was reported in the Northern Cape. However, the timeframe of these cancellations was not made known.

The department’s response comes just as Eskom launched a tender for 15 000 9mm bullets for the Grootvlei Power Station, a national key point, near Balfour in Mpumalanga. The power entity explained that the ammunition is used for training of security personnel under the law of the National Key Points.

OFM News/Elsabé Richard