EDITORIAL | It is clear SA’s gun control measures are not working

Despite SA’s stringent gun control laws and citizens annually surrendering thousands of firearms to the state for destruction, death and mayhem continue to be unleashed on the country’s streets daily.

The killing of 26 people in taverns in Soweto, Mamelodi, Roodepoort, Katlehong and Pietermaritzburg over the past three days, and the mass murders of more than 20 people in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha since January, points to a concerning and growing problem of gun violence in the country.

Unlike the US and its lax firearm laws, which enable people to buy military-grade weapons at shopping centres, to own a gun in SA requires would-be firearm owners to subject themselves to a litany of checks and balances, which in theory are world-class.

These checks go beyond merely being able to prove you have a concealed wall and floor-mounted safe in your home. Firearm competence tests must be conducted, criminal record checks completed and proof provided that you are and will be a responsible gun owner.

We are told the checks are required because of SA’s spiralling and unprecedented level of gun violence, driven by the burgeoning number of weapons making their way onto the streets through robberies, burglaries and corruption.

Sunday night’s shooting at Soweto’s Emazulwini tavern, which claimed the lives of 16 patrons and left nine wounded, occurred hours after three people, including an 18-year-old boy, were shot dead near KwaMashaba tavern in Roodepoort and after two people were murdered at Mputlane Inn in Katlehong on the East Rand.

Hours before these shootings, four people were gunned down on Saturday night at Samkelisiwe Tavern in Sweetwaters, Pietermaritzburg.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a 33-year-old patron was killed in Monaco Tavern in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria.

The shootings were carried out with an assortment of weapons, including military-grade weapons such as AK47s and other types of assault rifles.

These killings point to a serious problem facing SA, with a large number of firearms making their way onto the streets.  

While police annually hold media events highlighting the destruction of both legal and illegal firearms, it is clear SA’s gun control measures are not working.

Military-grade weapons, like the AK47s used in the Emazulwini tavern shooting, should not be in circulation, but clearly they are.

Firearms, especially illegal weapons, are continuously making their way into the hands of hardened criminals.

The arrest and conviction in 2016 of former police officer Christiaan Prinsloo, for selling more than 2,000 confiscated firearms to Western Cape gangs between 2007 and 2015, is a stark reminder of what happens when corruption and firearms come into the mix.

Many of the guns Prinsloo sold continue to circulate in the violence-ravaged Cape Flats. The dangers they pose are evident from the number of mass murders which have occurred in the region.

That mass killings occur unabated across the country must have people questioning the state’s ability to crack down on illegal firearms and gun violence.

Yes, with the high level of violence in SA, the state is right to insist on stringent regulations when it comes to people wanting to own firearms.

Yes, the state is right to destroy unwanted firearms and to limit the number of weapons people can own.

And while the state is right to expect people to comply with firearm laws, which must be fair and justifiable, South Africans are well within their rights to expect the state to ensure firearms are removed from the hands of criminals and that our streets are safe.

At the moment they are not.

Military-grade weapons, such as the AK47s used in the Emazulwini Tavern shooting, should not be in circulation, but clearly they are.

The state needs to explain why they, and weapons such as army and police-issued R4 and R5 assault rifles, continually land up on the streets.

The police minister, the national police commissioner and the ministers of state security have some explaining to do.

If legal gun owners are rightfully expected to comply with the country’s firearm laws, the state’s security apparatus must tell South Africans exactly what they are doing to ensure surrendered and confiscated weapons are actually destroyed.

Importantly, if future tragedies like the massacres in Soweto and the Cape Flats are to be stopped, government must explain what it is doing to ensure criminals cannot access state-owned and high-powered military weapons.

It can no longer be the sole responsibility of SA’s legal gun owners to end gun violence.

It is time the government took gun violence seriously by establishing well-resourced policing units dedicated to properly investigate crimes linked to illegal firearms.