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#CrimeStats: Mbalula doesn't understand the danger of guns - Gun Free SA

Gun Free South Africa has hit out at Police Minister Fikile Mbalula‚ saying that his lax grasp of how illegal guns drive up crime rates is “worrying”.

Mbalula released the annual statistics — which cover crimes committed between April 2016 and March 2017 — and said that police recorded a 9% improvement in the recovery of illegal firearms and ammunition in the 2016/17 year.

The seizure of guns and ammunition is heavily dependent on police action‚ with officers chalking up over 16‚000 individual cases during the year under review. According to the statistics‚ the number of cases of illegal firearms and ammunition rose to 16‚134‚ from 14‚772 the previous reporting year.

Gun Free South Africa’s Adele Kirsten said the “success” of gun statistics should be viewed against a spike of several thousand cases of robbery with aggravating circumstances.

“Minister Fikile Mbalula shows no appreciation of the role that he and the police play in curbing the availability of guns because they play a direct role in driving crime up. [There have been] almost 9‚000 more cases of aggravated robbery over the past year and guns continue to drive violent crime in this country. It is likely that most of these cases were committed using guns‚” Kirsten added.

She said that the country was beset by a flood of illegal weapons‚ and mopping these up would be the first step in combating surging crime rates.

“The likely scenario is that the spike in police seizures is due to the availability of legal and illegal guns. More bullet casings are being found at crime scenes and that tells us that there is an excess…they are easy to get.

“Mop up the illegal lot and then stop the leak of legal weapons into that pool. It sounds oversimplified but that is what it is. And our minister just wants to send in the army everywhere‚” she said.