Alarm as lost or stolen firearms end up in hands of criminals

Lost or stolen firearms, illegal firearms and ammunition remain one of the biggest contributors to the high and serious crimes committed in South Africa.

Institute for Security Studies consultant and independent researcher David Bruce said the quickest way for the South African Police Service (Saps) to improve public safety was to focus on firearm crime and violence.

Bruce said guns played a major role in pushing up levels of murder, including femicide, and other forms of violent organised crime and were responsible for between 12 000 and 16 000 deaths per year.

“Firearms make a major contribution to crime-related death, injury and fear in South Africa,” he said.

ALSO READ: Only 3% of stolen firearms are returned to their owners by police

Stolen firearms used in crimes across SA

“In areas with high firearm crime levels, there are seven main gun-related crime categories: is murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, hijacking, residential robbery, nonresidential robbery and illegal possession of guns and ammunition.”

Bruce said South Africa’s highest gun-related crime levels were reported in Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and parts of the Eastern Cape.

“Police measures to reduce firearm crime must be aligned with efforts to reduce the overall problem of firearm proliferation in South Africa, including more rigorous implementation of the Firearms Control Act and digitisation, anticorruption and other measures to strengthen the Central Firearms Registry,” he said.

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime researcher Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane said one of the sources of illegal firearms was cross-border trading.

“We are not seeing the same kind of figures we saw in the early ’90s. We saw a lot of our firearms in the ’90s coming in from internal conflict in the country and across borders,” said Irish-Qhobosheane.

“There is still some across the border through to the Western Cape from Namibia and firearms coming from Lesotho and Zimbabwe and Mozambique, but not in the numbers they used to be.

ALSO READ: Ex-Hawks member jailed 11 years for selling police gear, stealing evidence, losing a firearm

Both legal and illegal firearms easy to access

“For us, more concerning is the domestic sources of firearms that include the diversion of legal firearms into illegal markets.

“This includes firearms owned by civilians, firearms under the jurisdiction the police and other stake firearms,” she said.

Irish-Qhobosheane said fraudulent firearm licences also contributed to the problem.

“In KZN, certain private security companies involved in the taxi violence and more have also been able to access firearms they should have not able to have.”

She said police records indicated more than 63 500 licensed firearms were lost or stolen between 2013 and 2023, and 28 969 police-issued firearms were reported lost between 2003 and 2023.

“Between April 2020 to November 2023 at least 357 firearms vanished from police evidence stores and Saps armoury and firearms were identified for destruction,” she added.