I could not agree more with the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele when he said recently that there should be no guns for private citizens.
Guns are a danger to society, legal or illegal, it does not matter!
It is believed that 23 people die every day in South Africa due to firearms.
Cele and his counterparts destroyed 30,000 firearms in Vereeniging last week, where he said that the firearms intended for the boiler ended up in the hands of the state either through being seized or voluntarily handed over to the SAPS across the country’s provinces. Most illegal firearms make their way to criminals when they are stolen from homes during robberies and they in turn end up killing people, most of whom are innocent. It is said that Gauteng contributed the most firearms to the 30,039 of destroyed weapons and this cannot be tolerated.
I could also not agree more with Cele when he said that there has to be a shorter time period for the next destruction.
This will indeed cut off anyone getting any funny ideas – even within SAPS itself, and avoid these firearms from finding their way back onto the street.
It is believed that 1,066 murders were carried out with 888 of the weapons between 2010 and 2014. At least 261 children were murdered or wounded between 2010 and 2016 with the guns, and this too cannot be tolerated. Rightly so, in order to prevent the commission of serious and violent crimes as well as to stamp the authority of the state, Police have to continue to actively detect and remove these illegal firearms from circulation.
The SAPS should continue to fight the spread of illegal firearms and ammunition as they pose a threat to the safety and security of the people of this country.
The nation’s safety comes first!
Lerato wa ha Serero…
