Police officers and forensic experts on the crime scene homestead where seven people were shot and killed in Qunu village near Mthatha, Eastern Cape on 02 January 2023 (Photo: Hoseya Juabse) 
Two weeks ago 23 people were shot dead in a spate of gun massacres in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. On Friday night two much-loved celebrities, AKA and Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, lost their lives to gun violence outside a restaurant in Durban. These shootings bring into focus a change in the pattern of South Africa’s gun violence: there are more shootings in which multiple people are shot multiple times in public places.
As happened after the tavern massacres in 2022, the response has focused on considering possible motives for the shooting of these mostly young black men, and on bringing the perpetrators to book.
Our speculations about why these high-profile shootings occurred must be contextualised with the fact that, according to the SAPS’ recorded crime statistics between April and June 2022, 30 people are shot and killed every day in South Africa. The motives for these murders are wide-ranging, and include hits, taxi route feuds, gender-based violence, robbery-related murders, gang shootouts, arguments and organised crime.
While the “why” of shootings varies widely, what all these murders have in common is a gun. Every single person shot and killed would be alive if there hadn’t been a gun.
The intersection between gun availability and death is complex. (Image: iStock)
Guns are designed to kill, and they’re doing just this – at an increasing rate. In late 2010, South Africa started seeing an increase in gun deaths, from a “low” of 18 people a day in 2009 to 30 in 2022. Nationally guns have replaced knives as the leading cause of murder, and in Gauteng they have replaced traffic accidents as the leading cause of non-natural death.
This rise in gun violence coincides with an increase in the flow of guns into communities. The causes include poor implementation of South Africa’s Firearms Control Act (2000) by the state and poor compliance by gun owners, including exploitation of loopholes in the law to accumulate weapons and ammunition; and fraud and corruption by all stakeholders in the firearms chain, from the police to gun dealers, trainers, associations and owners.
All have contributed to rising gun numbers.
The gun industry, for example, has blatantly used the increase in violent crime and the climate of fear to advertise their wares, encouraging individuals to get better and bigger guns with more lethal ammunition.
The scene where 15 people were shot at the Emazulwini Tavern in Soweto, Johannesburg, on 10 July 2022. (Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed)
The intersection between gun availability and death is complex. Wealthy nations like Switzerland have high levels of gun ownership, but low gun murder rates, though their rate of male gun-related suicide is high. Middle- and low-income nations like South Africa show a different pattern – as gun ownership increases so do gun-related murders.
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The impact of gun availability on a country’s level of violence is influenced by its “gun-control regime”. These regimes include effective policing and criminal justice systems, systems of political accountability, welfare safety nets, comprehensive education provision and cultures of trust and confidence.
With rising crime, a weak criminal justice system, as well as forceful marketing by the firearms industry that guns are effective for self-defence, gun dealers in South Africa are reporting a surge in sales, particularly since the July 2021 unrest.
The US saw a similar surge in gun sales in 2020 and 2021 as millions were bought for protection in response to the socioeconomic devastation wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic and protests linked to the presidential election. Research in the US has already linked pandemic gun sales to an increase in gun-related deaths in that country.
At the heart of the arms race in South Africa is the myth that guns are effective for self-defence. There is no evidence anywhere in the world that more guns make people safer. There is overwhelming evidence that guns increase the risk for injury and death for everyone in our society.
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For example, a new study undertaken by Wits University, the University of Cape Town and the Medical Research Council, which looks at robbery-related murders in South Africa, found that while robbery-homicide is relatively rare, the increased risk of being killed in a robbery can be linked to victims who are older white men and to the likelihood that victims are armed and resist attack.
Guns are not the solution: they do not help build safer communities.
So, while it is essential that the perpetrators of violent crimes are prosecuted, this reactive response to crime must be accompanied by proactive up-stream action to reduce the availability of guns in South Africa.
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Dealing with the scale of the problem right now requires a clear strategy and good intelligence, and the focus has to shift from not only arresting the criminals but also to recovering and destroying the guns so as to stop them being used again and again, as well as to stopping guns leaking into criminal hands in the first place.
We need decisive action to stop the gun violence virus in South Africa.
Police officers and forensic experts at the homestead where seven people were shot and killed in Qunu village near Mthatha, Eastern Cape, on 2 January 2023. (Photo: Hoseya Juabse)
Three immediate actions by the government can help stop the slaughter: First, prioritise the voices of residents living with high levels of gun violence and not a vocal but small minority of gun owners.
Second, table the unjustifiably delayed Firearms Control Amendment Bill in Parliament to limit guns and owners, since licensed guns are the biggest source of illegal guns in South Africa.
Finally, establish and resource a specialised firearms unit to recover and destroy legal and illegal guns and ammunition and tighten controls over legal guns and ammunition to stop leakage into criminal hands.
Fewer guns means a safer South Africa. DM/MC
Adèle Kirsten is the director of Gun Free South Africa.