On Friday 12 July, the South African Police Service announced the destruction of 14 595 firearms and firearm parts, emphasizing that the service “remains relentless in its efforts to detect and permanently remove illegal firearms and ammunition in circulation.”
A total of 11 421 handguns, 1 708rifles, 1 205 shotguns, and 28 ‘combination firearms’ were melted down during a destruction process at Vanderbijlpark after being seized by the police or handed in.
Of these firearms, the largest portion, 4 676, were seized in Gauteng. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape followed with 3 117 and 1 834 respectively. February saw a previous batch of 18 077 destroyed. This latest batch of destroyed firearms brings the total of firearms destroyed since 2019 to 263 545. This includes firearms that were voluntarily surrendered during the amnesty period.
SAPS noted that all working firearms were subjected to IBIS (Integrated Ballistic Identification System) testing, in order to determine if any firearms had been used to commit a crime. National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola stated that SAPS intends to increase operations aimed at recovering and removing illegal firearms from South Africa’s streets, due to the “threat to the safety and security of the inhabitants of this country.”
This echoes calls from the ISS in a recent paper, aimed at providing recommendations to the incoming Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and the National Commissioner. One of the recommendations made is for a dedicated anti-firearms unit that specializes in tracing and removing firearms and ammunition used by criminals. This, along with a fully digitized firearm registry would aid the SAPS in not only cracking down on illegal firearms, but further in reducing the loss of firearms by police officers; in 2023, SAPS officers lost 740 firearms.
When asked if reducing the number of firearms lost by SAPS was a priority for his department, the Minister responded, “We shouldn’t be losing those [firearms].” He added that the department would be reviewing how firearms are handled by officers, identifying a need to tighten controls.
Furthermore, the Minister noted that in many attacks on police officers, “often the firearms are the target.” He went on to state that his department would be focusing on statistics to look for results from the incoming policies, and there was a need to recover lost firearms. Although no details were provided, the Minister mentioned that SAPS leadership had been looking into new technologies to aid in preventing any additional loss of firearms.
Due to the prolific use of illegal firearms in crimes across the country, SAPS leadership believes it “pivotal that we double our efforts in removing those that are illegal out of circulation.”
