Weapons that fuelled fear reduced to scrap: 12,499 guns destroyed by police

National police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola on Wednesday officiated at an event where 12,499 firearms confiscated from criminals were destroyed.

This brings to 291,993 the total number of firearms and parts destroyed by police over the past five years, he said.

"Each one represents a potential life saved, a family spared from grief and a community fortified against chaos. The destruction of weapons that once fuelled terror, now reduced to scrap, is not symbolic; it is a strategic blow against the violence that threatens our nation’s soul," said Masemola. 

At the Vanderbijlpark event, Gauteng brought most firearms with 5,099, followed by:

• the Western Cape with 2,333;
• KwaZulu-Natal with 1,574; and
• 1,432 from the Eastern Cape.

Firearms remain the preferred weapon in serious and violent crime, specifically murder and attempted murder, Masemola said.

Through Operation Shanela, police seize about 100 firearms per week.

In the past seven days, 106 firearms were seized, in the previous week 115, and the week before that 102 firearms were seized.

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