Pietermaritzburg - Inkatha Freedom Party Member of Provincial
Legislature Blessed Gwala has called for a thorough investigation into the
proliferation of illegal firearms in KwaZulu-Natal, warning that the province
is increasingly becoming a haven for gun-toting
assassins.
He was speaking at a debate
during the tabling of the Department of Community Safety and Liaison budget on
Thursday where he highlighted the killings of people using illegal guns.
According to the report tabled
by MEC Mxolisi Kaunda, a total of 139 illegal guns and 1 431 rounds of
ammunition were recovered in the province in January alone and these included
shotguns and assault rifles.
Earlier, when tabling his
maiden budget Kaunda admitted that illegal guns were a problem in the province,
saying that there were 3 325 firearms recovered between April and December 2016
while 717 guns were recovered between January and February this year.
“Fact of life is that in this
province hardly a day passes without us hearing of another murder, rape,
abduction and burglary. Criminals are already a step ahead of the law
enforcement agencies,” said Gwala.
He added that the killings in
hostels and townships such as uMlazi illustrate
that the province is in the grip of an unparalleled wave of gun violence. Gwala blamed
this on the easy issuing of gun licenses to people.
He called on the MEC to provide
a clear vision on how he would deal with the problem, adding that the hosting
of lavish conferences and summits was not yielding any results.
“Equally frightening is that an
analysis done in 2016 indicates that of people killed, 35% were killed using
guns. We are duty bound to do something about this state of killer
illegal firearms,” said Kaunda.
There are fears that such guns
are used in the commission of crimes such as robberies, politically linked
killings and faction fights. The availability of guns, the MEC said, was
stretching the police force to the limit in the province where there is one
police officer for every 469 people.
“Our society produces a lot of
criminals which keeps our understaffed service
very busy and is exacerbated by the targeting of our officers who are
killed and maimed by criminals,”
the MEC told MPLs.
In the 2015/2016 financial
year, 211 000 people were arrested, 124 000 for serious crimes. As part
of the action plan, the department will
hold a series of meetings involving police and community members in a bid to
deal with distrust that some communities have with the police.
In addition, there will be
another window of amnesty for those who own illegal firearms to hand them over
to authorities without the fear of being arrested.
Political parties agreed that
the R203m allocation to a department that oversees the safety of the province's
residents was not adequate to meet crime-related
challenges.
