Criminal justice system no longer seen as deterrent as gun violence rises, say experts

A complete overhaul of the police service, with the focus on getting intelligence-driven policing back on track, is one of the solutions to deal with rising gun violence.

This the view of the South African Gun Owners Association after being asked about interventions needed to fight crime.      

The murder of rapper AKA and friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane in Durban on Friday night is among the latest murders involving firearms. These were not the only deaths at the weekend where firearms were used. Four people were gunned down during a house party in the early hours of Sunday in Kwazakhele, Gqeberha.

Spokesperson Gideon Joubert said on Monday the country had high levels of gun violence because there is no intelligence-driven operation to fight it.

The collapse of the criminal justice system was a direct cause of the rise in gun violence.

“What we need is a total overhaul of the police. That may include dissolving the SAPS, as the entire organisation is compromised.”

Policing could be devolved to provincial or even local level, with the focus on getting policing back on track.

Joubert said there has been a long debate about gun violence and what steps are needed to fight it.

Research by the civilian secretariat for police, published in 2015, on the effect of the Firearms Control Act on crime between 2000 and 2014 found that in spite of the law and in the absence of strong policing, the use of firearms in murder tended to return to the higher levels that existed before the decline in murders and use of firearms when there was strong policing.

The secretariat stated strong policing needed to be maintained to sustain lower levels of firearms use.

Joubert said prosecution rates for a number of crimes were low.

Only 5% of murderers were successfully prosecuted and in the trio crimes (carjackings, house robberies and business robberies) less than 3% were successfully prosecuted. “We are sitting with a crisis.”

He said there was no meaningful consequences for crime.

On where the firearms came from, Joubert cited research by author and Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, Mark Shaw, which concluded the state was the biggest source of guns used by criminals.

Policing expert Dr Johan Burger said access to illegal firearms worsened the situation.

“It is not as much about the proliferation of illegal firearms. The problem is much more to do with the growth of organised crime and crimes such as kidnapping. The main problem is the criminal justice system is fast losing its deterrent capability.”

Burger said criminals were becoming more brazen because they could not be identified. Even if they were identified, they did not believe they would be arrested. Even if they were arrested, they believed they would not be prosecuted.

“The fear of consequences is diminished by lack of effectiveness of the criminal justice system, which has been weakened and is no longer a credible deterrent.”

Criminals believed they could get away with their crimes.

One would expect the police to develop  a targeted strategy to find and confiscate illegal firearms. The availability of illegal firearms has not been reduced.

This was worsened by crime intelligence capability, where effectiveness was reduced when Richard Mdluli was in charge about 12 years ago. Mdluli enriched himself, his family and his cronies and in the process weakened the effectiveness of the crime intelligence unit to function optimally.

Burger said if police had a fully functional crime intelligence unit they should be able to penetrate syndicates 

“There are still pockets of excellence. As a division within the police, it is largely dysfunctional and impedes the ability of police to combat these groups.”

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.