SA flooded with firearms
THEREare currently 10 million illegal firearms circulating in South Africa, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said on Tuesday.
Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on police on the annual crime statistics, Phiyega touched on the large number of firearms in the hands of South African businesses and individuals.
“There are currently 5.3 million official firearms obtained in terms of the Firearms and Ammunition Act.
“There are also 4.4 million firearms in terms of the Firearms Control Act. We are talking a cool 10 million close of firearms circulating in the country,” she said.
Officially, records indicate that these firearms are owned by 2.4 million people.
In the last three financial years, police issued 296 315 individual and business firearm licences.
Over the same period, 108 257 firearms were destroyed by police. THE lack of resources at police stations is amajor contributing factor to crime in Gauteng escalating.
This is according to the interim convener of the Lenasia CPF, Mahomed Bulbulia.
“In Lenasia, there are 12 extensions and this is broken into four sectors. Each sector is supposed to have two police vehicles but some cars are so old that you would be lucky to get even four working in the 12 sectors,” he told POST yesterday (Tuesday).
“Sometimes, someone gets robbed 200m away from the station and when it is reported, nothing is done.”
He said another problem was crime and corruption at senior level and officers seeing their younger, often less experienced colleagues being promoted ahead of them. This led to low morale.
“It’s because they are working in an environment where everything may not be above board, so they just lower their heads and do what they need to do, often without passion. Management must change for those on the ground to work better,” he advised.
“There is no doubt that many people have lost faith in the police because of bribery, corruption and nepotism and those officers, who are watching others progress, feel deflated because they are not being recognised for their hard work.”
Bulbulia said some police members are not even trained in the tasks they are given.
“The criminals are seemingly planning better than our police.”
He said that some of the priority crimes in Lenasia included house robberies, theft of motor vehicles and hijackings.
“There is also rape but these crimes sadly are not being reported. When it comes to murder, there are so many that even I have lost touch because it has become a norm.”
He said the crime statistics did not make him feel safe.
A solution, he said, was the introduction of the death penalty.
“I believe in a life for a life because criminals commit crime knowing that it is most likely that nothing will happen to them.”
Bulbulia became a crime fighter in 1994 after his mother was murdered.
The executive chairman of the Benoni CPF, Dr Reza Patel, said two of the biggest problems were illegal mining and drugs being sold in the CBD. He said about three bodies surfaced a week at the mines.
With regard to drugs, he said the police have undertaken to close drug dens and that they have been successful.
“They are making the effort, but the problem is, if you close down one, 10 opens. The problem lies with the landlords, who rent properties to anyone.”
Patel said hijackings were minimal in Benoni but smash and grabs remained an issue.
He added that in terms of the State and the judiciary, effective prosecution and success rate was required.
“This is because community confidence is bought when the court system finds people guilty or else the community loses confidence. We need to restore this confidence.” Patel said that although the morale of the police might be low, as members were being attacked, he commended them on how they are fighting organised crime.
The crime situation on Azaadville, said a spokesman for the area’s neighbourhood watch, was very different.
Azaadville has about 1 200 homes and 300 flats. It has four entry-exit points.
“The area is about 2km by 2km. The CPF and neighbourhood watches were formed in 2010 and prior to that the crime in the area was relatively high. But things have since changed. On average we have about one or two house burglaries a month and there were no hijackings reported this year. There were two incidences of car theft and with regard to murder, I don’t recall any incident.”
He said the area might be smaller than others in Gauteng, but active citizenry was working well.
“We have four entry-exit points. At night, one is left open and is manned by a security guard and the others are closed using boom gates. We also have a BBM service, which helps in the combating of crime.”
Providing statistics, the chairman of the Gauteng Provincial Community Police Board, Andy Mashaile, said the province had 143 police stations. There are 13 million people policed by just under 30 000 officers.
“Human resources is a problem. We have people resigning and others are dying (on and off duty) and replacing these members is a challenge because training takes two years, so no one can be replaced immediately,” he explained.
Mashaile said there was a tool used to determine the ratio of police to a certain amount of citizens.
“The statistics of 13 million people to 30 000 officers may sound alarming to ordinary people as they expect to see a sea of visible policing for a sizeable population. But the police know what tools to determine the ratio.”
He said it was vital for communities to identify challenges and becoming involved in CPFs.
“We all need to work together, with the police, to strategies and come up with solutions for the way forward.”
His advice to communities was not to attract crime.
“When you buy a new cellphone or a laptop, what do you do with the packaging? You throw out in your trash. Are you aware that criminals look at your trash to determine if you would be targeted? Try to tear up these boxes. The same goes with your mail.
“Don’t throw your account statements in the bin that shows your personal details. This can lead to identity fraud.”