If civilians may not own guns, why do the police need them?

“Unless my calculations are wrong, firearms were used in 34% of the murders, which negates Mr Cele’s statement

“BHEKI Cele threatens to kick in doors” (Cape Times, March 5) refers.

Minister Bheki Cele has threatened to kick in doors of South Africans who are in possession of illegal fire-arms.

While it is commendable to remove illegal firearms from criminals, why does he wait until the so-called amnesty is over? (So-called amnesty because a real amnesty would have allowed one to hand in an “illegal” firearm, no questions asked, while the “amnesty” threatens criminal prosecution if it is found to have been implicated in a crime, resulting in NO such firearm having been handed in during previous “amnesties”. Gangsters and criminals are not stupid.

If it is true that he has ways and means of finding owners of illegal firearms, I would suggest he proceed forthwith.

However, what concerns me is Minister Cele’s definition of “illegal firearms”.

Does he mean illegal firearms such as those smuggled into the country across the borders, firearms stolen from the police and army, and licensed firearms stolen from security companies and private citizens, which are now found in the hands of criminals?

Or does he mean previously licensed firearms in the hands of citizens who for some reason failed to renew their licences when the original 5- or 10-year validity period expired?

Such licences should have been renewed more than 90 days before their expiry date, but many people forgot because they did not keep track of the dates or were unable to comply due to illness, travel or other reasons. Some were just not prepared to go through the tedious, costly and time-consuming procedures required to renew a licence, basically because of the shambles at the Central Firearms Registry (CFR) in Pretoria.

However, many were willing but could not renew their licences because SAPS changed the rules and also illegally disabled their computers’ facility to renew licences within the 90-day period before expiry, for which the Firearms Control Act (FCA) specifically makes provision on the re-application/ renewal form, by asking for valid reasons why the application was late. (I have previously had a licence renewed 60 days before expiry

white people being labelled “racist” simply because they have a negative or less than fulfilling interaction with a person of colour. without any problems).

Legal firearm owners have therefore become criminalised by an administrative oversight, or because of the police’s malicious unilateral change of the terms of the FCA.

Do motor vehicle owners become criminals because either their motor car or driver’s licence was not renewed in time? No.

If Mr Cele considers such firearm owners to be owners of illegal firearms, he is wrong.

SAPS have been interdicted to collect firearms from owners who have not renewed the licences until the Gun Owners of South Africa (Gosa) court case is heard.

So, if Minister Cele and SAPS

should be praised, it exposes the real agenda of America’s foreign policies.

The agreement signed in Doha clearly did not include the Americanbacked puppet Afghanistan regime of President Ashraf Ghani. It will be interesting to hear the reasons as to why the Afghanistan regime led by Ghani, presumably a close ally of the US, was left out of the negotiations and a party to the deal.

The US-Taliban deal is ambiguous as it just talks about an intra-Afghan negotiation and does not mention anything about the practical steps or terms of engagement that will be taken towards the peace process to resolve the issues between the Afghan parties. This agreement is another example of a war that did not produce any clear military victory for the US.

Like Vietnam, Afghanistan will be added to the books of history of imperial failures, wars not won and goals not achieved. kick in doors of owners of firearms with expired licences, he will be in contempt of court. Not only that, but he will reveal that he is no better than the Nazi hooligans of yesteryear.

Civilians should not voluntarily surrender firearms with expired licences, nor try to renew them, as encouraged by the “amnesty”, because of the short time-period allowed, resulting in these guns probably being destroyed or, as previously, ending up in the wrong hands. Rather store them safely (handling not permitted!) until the Gosa court case is resolved one way or the other.

The minister stated that under the present “amnesty” over 80 000 firearms have been handed in. That is a surprisingly high number, considering the extremely low numbers handed in during the first few weeks. Does he include weapons “recovered” from gangsters that were stolen from the army and the police?

He also said that of the over 20 000 murders annually, “most” were committed with firearms. No! Mr Cele does not understand statistics or is wilfully misleading the public to suit his agenda, namely,

started diving to now, I have seen fewer fish, particularly in False Bay. This is definitely due to overfishing.

This damages ecosystems vital to our planet’s survival.

Overfishing threatens maritime animals, coastal birds and other species. This also affects us humans.

Small scale fishermen rely on fishing as a source of income. Algae is a source of food for many of the fish we eat. If this algae grows out of control, it will damage our ecosystems and harm other marine animals.

Bycatch is the fish which we catch but we do not eat. We catch many fish that we throw away and do not use. This has a big effect on the oceans. If we don’t make a change for the better soon there will be no fish in the oceans. the disarmament of private citizens.

According to the Crime Statistics April 2018 to March 2019 (page 27), 21 022 murders were committed in South Africa. The top 10 instruments used were:

7 156 firearms

4 720 knives;

1 552 unidentified sharp instruments;

599 hands, fists, feet;

506 bricks, stones, rocks;

301 sticks

159 bottles, bottle heads; and 227 sjamboks, pangas/machetes, fire/matches.

For the remaining 6 802 murders no details were provided!

Unless my calculations are wrong, firearms were used in 34% of the murders, which negates Mr Cele’s statement that “most murders were committed with firearms”.

Last: Mr Cele has repeatedly stated that he believes that civilians should be forbidden to own firearms and only the army and the police should be in possession of licensed firearms.

Question: If civilians may not own guns, why do the police need guns?

Cape Town Cycle Tour a successful event. Cape Town is truly an International venue of note.

It is, however, sad that the starting venue at the Grand Parade is a smelly and unhygienic urinal – most probably the largest urinal I have ever encountered to date.

You can smell the urine when approaching the station from Adderley Street, all along Strand/ New Market Streets, including Plein Street and Corporation Street, the smell covering the whole of Grand Parade. In fact, the whole area is filthy, a total mess, disgusting and an embarrassment to all, to say the least.

I was listening to the many comments from riders and viewers alike, not good for Cape Town.

How the organisers could even think of selecting such an unhygienic spot is above comprehension. Why not start and end the race at the same area (i.e. Green Point) where it is safe and a pleasure to view such a fantastic event. Please consider for 2021.

Mr Mayor, you were also there on Sunday morning to witness the