I find it shocking that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It has been revealed by Police Minister Bheki Cele that the police in South Africa had 376 firearms stolen from them in the last financial year.
Bheki Cele has confirmed that all 376 firearms have since been recovered and that he would like to continue with his drive to decrease firearm access for law-abiding citizens.
How can the ANC and specifically Bheki Cele try and justify disarming law-abiding armed citizens while the police:
- Has not trained one new cop for over two years
- Has lost more than 10 million rounds of ammunition in the last 8 years
- Has lost over 25 000 firearms over the last 16 years
- Does not have access to their own Firearm Permit System due to non- payment, thus they don’t really have any true control over their firearms
- Has failed to combat serious and violent crime at increasingly alarming rates every single year, sexual offences have less than 5% successful conviction rate, maybe not only the fault of the police, but they certainly play a role
- Has failed to turn the tide of gender-based violence in South Africa with more than 116 rapes reported in South Africa per day
- Has failed to turn the tide with more than 57 people murdered in the country every single day
- Has more than R16bn worth of civil claims against them, thus decreasing funds for policing
- Has increased VIP protection budget instead visible policing
- Has deliberately understaffed the Western Cape police ranks in the hope of destabilising the province to try and overthrow the successful opposition government in that province
- Has a DNA backlog of more than 300 000 cases which justice is delayed and thus denied
- Has more than 10 000 criminals in the blue uniform, many that are gun carrying operational members
The list can go on for hours and even days. They attempt to disarm South Africans is one of political influence driven by the fear of being faced with disgruntled, tax paying, law-abiding citizens that demand the protection they pay for public service, bit don’t seem to get.
Did you know, the average urban response time for police in South Africa is around 21 minutes, and that is if they actually respond.
South Africans must arm themselves within the framework of the law in order to build a safe and sustainable future. They must take part in neighbourhood watch initiatives, support organisations like Action Society and #SafeCitizen in the fight for safer communities where law-abiding citizens are allowed to be the heroes when government retreats in the face of danger.
South Africans must not retreat, legislation allows us to step up, step forward and fight the good fight.
Ian Cameron
– Ian Cameron leads Action Society’s community safety drive and is an ambassador for the #SafeCitizen Campaign. Ian is also the founder of firearms.co.za.