The push to disarm legally armed South Africans has managed to become even more outlandish and desperate. This time, a high ranking general in the South African Police Service (SAPS) spewed lie after lie on live television where he implied (quite strongly) that the increased proliferation of firearms used by violent criminals, is at the fault of legally armed South Africans.
On 16 May, SAPS commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi appeared on eNCA’s Power to Truth, Media Against Crime televised broadcast where he made a series of completely inaccurate, false and misleading statements which explicitly demonised firearms owners. Firearms.co.za finds it astounding that such statements can be made in a public forum and by such a high-ranking SAPS officer.
Shaun Lyle and Gideon Joubert wrote a scathing opinion piece about the Lieutenant Generals’ performance, and Firearms.co.za wholeheartedly agree with and support the points they made.
“Mkhwanazi states that under the previous Arms and Ammunition Act of 1969, 91,000 firearms were licenced (compared to more than double that at 192,000) under the new Firearms Control Act. That statement is ludicrous and patently untrue. Even the Central Firearms Registry’s (CFR) erratic statistics put firearm owners at anywhere between 1.5 and 2 million holding between 3 and 4 million licensed firearms.
“By international standards this is not high. On an international ranking (Wikipedia 2017) of registered firearms by the statistical benchmark of firearms per 100 people – South Africa sits at 89th on the list with only 9.7 guns per 100 people. South Africa ranks behind countries such as Venezuela with 35, Australia with 51, Afghanistan with 63, Russia with 67, Ukraine with 86 and Denmark with 87.
“Mkhwanazi makes the ridiculous claim that all firearms, including illegal firearms, were once ALL licensed and stolen from law-abiding citizens. He adds on to this absurdity by proclaiming ALL firearms recovered by SAPS are the consequence of stolen legal firearms and suggests that policy and legislation needs to be changed to effectively preclude citizens’ rights to legally own and licence firearms.
“The Lieutenant General piles on with his falsehoods when he says that KwaZulu-Natal has an estimated population of 12.5 million, and makes the point that our prisons have 18,000 beds but have an inmate population of 24,000 which he suggests represents about 20% of the population. We completely fail to understand his logic nor his mathematical veracity as, according to his logic, 20% of 12.5 million translates to 2.5 million criminals, in KZN alone. Then, as he said in his opening statement, if South Africa only has 192,000 licenced firearms and 20% of these fall into criminal hands, the country should only have an illegal firearms problem of 38,200 guns.
“If however Mkhwanazi is referring rather to the estimated population of South Africa at say 67 million, that means SAPS then considers an estimated 13,800,000 citizens/residents to be criminals or potential criminals. The stated 18,000 prison beds will then just not cut it, no matter how quickly Public Works builds new prisons. Mkhwanazi may have unwittingly redefined the terms misinformation, disinformation and misinformation.
“Data shows that the State is by far the biggest conduit of firearms into criminal hands. The evidence and cases continue to mount up, from the Cape to the North West province.
“For example, in the 2004 case involving burglary at the Police Public Order Unit Faure armoury near Cape Town, gang insiders asserted that they had long identified the State as the easiest way of sourcing guns in bulk rather than individually through suburban burglaries. So, on this fact alone, until this significant SAPS-related problem is addressed, we will continue to lose the battle against violent crime.
“Mkhwanazi’s assertion that all “illegal guns were once licensed” is also patently false. The extensive degree of cross-border smuggling of firearms is well-documented. As are the losses from SAPS stores and stocks via corruption and criminal capture of the organisation. Fully automatic weapons are frequently used in major crime, notably cash in transit robberies. These automatic weapons are not permitted to be owned, licenced or held by citizens, they arguably, illegally stream across our porous borders or are obtained from the SANDF or SAPS themselves.
“Just as concerning is the fact that we have absolutely no data regarding losses from the SAPS13 evidence stores, and their own reported losses are equally questionable. On average, the reported recovery rate of stolen state and police firearms is only 7% which is one-tenth the recovery rate of civilian guns. Evidence shows that between 2007 and 2017, 37,000 once licenced firearms were recovered versus 30,000 recoveries of never before registered firearms. In other words, of the 67,000 recovered firearms over that 10-year period, 55% were previously licenced and 45% were never licenced/illegal firearms – this fact makes a complete mockery of the ‘ALL’ as stated by Mkhwanazi.
“In Mark Shaw’s book ‘Give us more Guns’ evidence is presented suggesting that police guns are sold rather than lost, as they are seldom ever recovered. In 2010 the police reported that 66% of firearms stolen from civilians were recovered versus the astonishingly low 7% for police-issued firearms, as mentioned above. In the worst-case scenario; an estimated 10,000 firearms are stolen annually, including from parastatals, security companies, police and civilians. The stated recovery rate of 66% means that 3,400 (34% of 10,000) of stolen firearms are potentially retained in criminal hands. Proportionally this represents a mere 0.11% of firearms ALREADY in criminal hands as sourced through other means.
“The claim that privately held firearms stolen from homes is a major source of guns for criminals (as opposed to a coincidental one) has also been debunked – yet Mkhwanazi appears to hold onto this fallacy for reasons of convenience.
“If Mkhwanazi’s strategy is to solve crime by pushing for the disarmament of millions of legal and law-abiding South African citizens because the SAPS is failing so abysmally in the fight against crime, then he is as out of touch with reality as is each of his predecessors. We must then question his fitness to hold office. It is no wonder SAPS as an organisation instils absolutely no confidence in the population. A corruption report referred to on eNCA today (15 May 2024) alone, reflects half of those polled (1,500 people across all 9 provinces) having limited confidence in the police and a third having NO confidence at all.”
Lyle and Joubert challenge the police Commissioner with the following question, and Firearms.co.za is eagerly waiting for the answer:
“Where would the law-abiding residents of KZN be today if legally armed citizens had not stood up and filled the complete void left by the absent police force during a whole week of civil unrest and looting in 2021?”
They concluded the piece with the following strong statement: “Let us, the law abiding citizens of South Africa, stand together and defend OUR rights to self-determination, self-defence and legal firearm ownership by rallying against misinformation, disinformation, falsehoods and political agendas.”
