The opening scene of rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes’s Dreamwork music video shows two men exchange words with someone who seems to be pleading with them, until one reaches into his waistband, pulls out a gun and shoots him at close range.
The men then casually walk to their white VW Polo and drive off as the fallen man’s blood stains the earth. Life imitated art on Friday when Forbes — together with his long time friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane — were the victims of two gunmen, except this was all too real.
Horrifying CCTV footage shows how one gunman sprints to Forbes, seconds after he had warmly embraced a friend.
The man aims the gun at the back of his head, there is a flash of fire, and the artist drops to the floor.
A second gunman fires multiple shots at the rest of the group, with one bullet killing Motsoane and another hitting the restaurant entrance wall.
Alleged eyewitness accounts claim the gunmen were seen running to a white car.
The bone-chilling image of the gunman audaciously firing the bullet which snuffed out one of SA’s most talented musicians in what is clearly a hit, has reignited the call for tougher legislation on gun control.
From international stars — Charlize Theron posted “Another beautiful life cut short by a senseless act of gun violence” after AKA’s death on Saturday — to musicians and politicians, reaction has been one of condemnation.
Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi on Sunday called for serious action by the state over illegal guns after paying his respects at Forbes’s home.
He said the issue came up at a recent lekgotla and the legislature needed to be approached in an effort to curb criminals with illegal guns “playing God”.
But the incident of gun violence wasn’t isolated to Durban’s Florida Road.
On Friday night, prominent KwaZulu-Natal traditional leader inkosi Zwelakhe Ndaba of Ntabamhlophe was assassinated at his home in Estcourt.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, four people — three females and a man celebrating his birthday — were gunned down during a house party in Kwazakhele, Gqeberha.
The increasing flood of guns and ammunition into our society means more senseless tragedies, the likes of which we saw in 2021.
Later that evening, prominent activist Ayob Mungalee, the former Gauteng head of the outlawed People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) group, who recently mobilised residents to perform raids on the B Section flats, was taken out in a hit.
Just two weeks ago, more than 18 people were gunned down in mass shootings in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in less than 24 hours.
Gun Free South Africa says the statistics are alarming — 30 people are shot and killed in SA every day, and despite opportunistic sound-bites, promises of action by government are hollow.
As GFSA director Adèle Kirsten points out, a gun massacre cannot happen without guns.
The rising flood of guns and ammunition into our society means more senseless tragedies, the likes of which we saw in 2022.
She said in response to the mass shootings in July — when 21 people were killed and 20 injured in three different tavern incidents — government responded by deploying crime intelligence, forensic experts, tactical and organised crime units to track the perpetrators down and hold them responsible.
But this doesn’t curb the issue of the proliferation of illegal guns and the growth of organised crime, according to policing expert Dr Johan Burger.
He lays the blame squarely at the door of the criminal justice system.
We see the miscarriage of justice every day as brazen criminals — as in the case of the Florida Road shootings, where the gunmen didn’t even bother to hide their identities — don’t fear being caught, or if they are, won’t face prosecution.
While there are exceptions to this — today marks 10 years since former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in their home and was sentenced to 13 years — the farcical murder trial of national soccer hero Senzo Meyiwa after his shooting in 2014 amplifies the lack of successful prosecution.
South African Gun Owners Association spokesperson Gideon Joubert said research by the civilian secretariat for police service, published in 2015, on the effect of the Firearms Control Act on crime between 2000 and 2014, showed only 5% of murderers were successfully prosecuted in the trio of crimes (carjackings, house robberies and business robberies).
Joubert believes the high levels of gun violence can be attributed to the lack of intelligence-driven operations and the collapse of the criminal justice system.
And to reverse that, we need to overhaul the police.
Gun Free SA has a multipronged approach, but they believe a specialised firearms unit to recover and destroy legal and illegal guns and ammunition and tightening gun control will wrest it off criminal hands.
One thing is clear, the bloodbath of gun violence is an epidemic in SA, and government, in failing to take action to stem the merciless killings, can been seen to be as guilty as those who get to decide who lives and who dies.
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