Police must do more to build public trust

With an estimated 3.8-million illegal and unlicensed firearms in circulation in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, it is clear criminals seldom have to look far to find weapons to commit their heinous deeds. Equally obvious is that removing illegal firearms from society should be a priority for our law enforcement authorities. A high court judgment handed down this week suggests the authorities are not tackling the scourge of illegal weapons with the diligence and care necessary to build public trust in the process.

Given the prominent role played by illegal firearms in the commission of crimes, it should be alarming that the police had to be dragged to court by public interest body the Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai) to get critical information on the police programme to destroy illegal weapons. These are either seized by the police after a crime has been committed or surrendered by owners in the amnesties offered to the owners of illegal firearms from time to time.

Between July 2021 and March 2022, a total of 50,903 illegal guns were destroyed by the police. However, according to Saai’s court case, there is no proof each of the firearms was subjected to an integrated ballistics identification systems (Ibis) check. This would prove whether any of them had been used to commit crimes.

The police are considering the implications of the judgment, while insisting none of the tested firearms was used in a crime.

Last year we heard the shocking news that the firearm that killed Bafana Bafana football captain Senzo Meyiwa in October 2014 was meant to have been destroyed but somehow made its way from Cleveland police station into the hands of a criminal.

Plainly, what happens to seized firearms is of more than mere academic interest.

The police have been given 30 days to comply with the court order and produce the records proving that all the weapons were Ibis-tested.

One hopes they will do this with alacrity, and that in future a more transparent process will be developed that makes approaches to the court on this issue unnecessary.

The police should be going out of their way to build public trust. The fact that they had to be dragged to court suggests less of a premium is being placed on public trust than should be the case.