Image Source: Daily News
Local – Illegal firearms and ammunition seizures in the Western Cape have surged significantly, with police recording 926 cases in the most recent quarter, up from 758 in the same period last year.
The figures have renewed urgent calls from civil society for stronger gun control enforcement and legislative reform.
Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) Director Dr Stanley Maphosa pointed to gang-affected areas, particularly the Cape Flats, as the epicentre of the crisis, where organised crime, drug markets, and territorial disputes converge to deadly effect.
“Firearms, when they are present, make conflicts deadly because they allow individuals and gangs to kill quickly and also from a distance. So when guns are widely available in communities that are already affected by other challenges like poverty, drugs, gangs, then violence escalates, and the small disputes become fatal. Fights become funerals.”
Where Are the Guns Coming From?
Dr Maphosa said the 57% firearms-involvement rate in Western Cape murders points to an illegal gun market that remains active and well-supplied through criminal networks.
Police seizures, while necessary, have not been enough to choke off supply.
The illegal gun supply flows from three sources: civilian losses, which combine private owners and security companies, account for the largest share, trailed by state leakage and cross-border trafficking.
It is not the state but private hands that account for most weapons lost, a point Dr Maphosa said the data makes clear.
“It is disinformation to say it is the state that loses more — the statistics that we all know that are in the public domain from the SAPS show us that civilians lose more than the state does.”
Closing the Loopholes
The Firearms Control Act of 2000 remains workable, but its implementation has fallen short.
Dr Maphosa identified a fully functional Central Firearms Registry as the most urgent fix, one that tracks every weapon from manufacture to destruction.
“That registry is not an administrative tool, but a policing tool, that must be used to tell us how many guns are in the country at any given time.”
Communities, he added, have a role to play too, reporting illegal firearms and declaring gun-free zones in schools and public spaces.
