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Does the party you may vote for have a plan to deal with illegal guns used in crime?

Adèle Kirsten
By Adèle Kirsten
27 May 2024
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Between 2020 and 2023, civilians reported the loss and theft of 16,486 guns, with the SAPS, SANDF and Correctional Services reporting a combined loss and theft of 2,381 guns, of which 85% were SAPS service pistols. On average, 24 guns enter the criminal market every day.

South Africa has a gun violence epidemic: 34 people are shot and killed every day. All of us are affected by the high levels of violent crime in our society. As we go to the polls on Wednesday, 29 May, we can make our mark for a safer, more prosperous country. Does the political party you want to vote for have a plan to combat the rising levels of gun violence in South Africa? 

While almost all major political parties include addressing violent crime in their 2024 election manifestos, most don’t mention gun control, even though guns are the leading weapon used in murder and attempted murder. 

The few political parties that do mention guns in their manifestos suggest that the solution to violent crime is to deal with illegal guns. Are they right?

Most gun-related crime in SA is committed using illegal guns, thus a key focus of effective gun control  must be the recovery and destruction of illegal guns already in circulation. By their nature, illegal guns are outside any control, which makes them highly valued by criminals and the weapon of choice to commit violent crime. 

Guns are a hardy, sought-after commodity, easy to conceal and move rapidly from hand to hand in the criminal underworld enabling multiple gun-related crimes to be committed using the same gun (For example, Maygene de Wee, Beeld, 16 July 2016: “Moordpad van één gesteelde pistol: 15 mense doodgeskiet binne ’n paar maande” [“Murder path of one stolen pistol: 15 people shot dead within two months”].

Guns are also more lethal: one in three people who are shot will die, in contrast to one in 55 people who are stabbed will die. Reducing the circulation of illegal guns will help reduce violent crime. The most effective way to do that is to establish dedicated intelligence-driven specialist firearms units in SAPS to recover the guns, trace their sources and then send them for destruction so that they are permanently removed from our society.

While mopping up the illegal guns in our homes and on our streets is a crucial step to reducing gun violence, it is not enough, as it stops short of addressing the sources of these crime guns. The latest available information shows that most crime guns were once legal. 

There are three main ways that legal guns feed violent crime in SA, providing a steady source of crime guns. 

Loss and theft


The most common and biggest source of crime guns is loss and theft of licensed guns. These are guns legally held by the government as in the police, military, Correctional Services and other government departments, the private security industry and private individuals. 

Between 2020 and 2023, civilians reported the loss and theft of 16,486 guns, with the SAPS, SANDF and Correctional Services reporting a combined loss and theft of 2,381 guns, of which 85% were SAPS service pistols. On average 24 guns enter the criminal market every single day. 

Other ways in which guns move into criminal hands is through fraud and corruption involving the police, businesses such as gun dealers and private security companies, and individuals. 

And third, crimes such as intimate femicide-suicide, where a man licensed to possess a gun uses his legal gun to kill his wife or girlfriend (current or previous) and himself. 

To reduce violent crime in SA, we need to close the tap that is responsible for most of the guns that enter the criminal market. This means reducing the availability of and easy access to guns, a proven gun control measure. 

South Africa’s own experience confirms the close association between firearm availability and violent crime. In the first years of democracy, SA’s gun violence levels were as high as they are today, with 34 people shot dead every day. 

As a result of an effective gun control regime that focused on recovering and destroying illegal guns, holding regular gun destructions, conducting firearm audits of state-owned weapons, developing intelligence-driven policing and tightening controls of licensed guns to stop their illegal use and leakage into the illicit market, the number of people shot dead almost halved in 10 years (from 1999 to 2009). 

The most effective way to reduce gun availability is to strengthen our national gun law. This means tabling the Firearms Control Amendment Bill of 2021, which despite wide consultation with relevant stakeholders, remains on the desk of the minister of police. 

Finally, gun violence costs the country billions of rands, including investment losses. In 2014 an estimated R6-billion (4% of South Africa’s national health budget) was spent treating gunshot-injured patients at state hospitals nationally; accounting for inflation this is about R9.3-billion as of October 2022. This figure only includes medical treatment costs and excludes other direct and indirect costs such as medical care post-discharge, loss of wages and quality of life costs. 

Does the party you want to vote for have a plan to deal with crime guns? Without a comprehensive approach to gun control, gun crime will not reduce, and crime guns will continue to be the weapon of choice for criminals. DM

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