Durban — The non-profit organisation Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) said it has noted a change in gun violence patterns in the past few years.
The organisation said actions to deal with SA’s gun violence epidemic were needed. A researcher at GFSA, Claire Taylor, said the first step was to recover and destroy the existing pool of firearms and ammunition in the country.
This comes after several shootings took place in Durban this week, resulting in multiple people losing their lives.
Among the incidents was the shooting at KwaMashu hostel where four people were slain. South of Durban, a drive-by shooting at Wentworth left one dead and five people wounded.
“A gun massacre cannot happen without a gun. The increasing flood of guns and ammunition into our society means more gun violence, including gun massacres,” said Taylor.
She said, secondly, close “taps” that leak legal guns into the illegal pool.
“The biggest source is legal guns held by civilians and the state. These are the taps that need to be closed,” she said.
Taylor said reducing the pool of legal guns available for leakage was imperative, and involved amending and implementing legislation to limit who can own what firearms and ammunition for which purpose, and improving controls over legal guns and ammunition to reduce availability and leakage.
Merewent CPF member Andre de Bruin said there was no doubt that the shooting incident was related to drugs, and had been going on for a while. He said the community have had enough.
“Yesterday we were counting the gunshots,” he said.
De Bruin said it was clear that this was beyond control and appealed to the South African Police Service to always be ahead of these criminals.
“The police need to be ahead of the criminals because they deploy more members of the SAPS to come and fight these crimes, but when they leave in a month, the crime starts again,” he said.
He said this needed to stop because the community was being held hostage, with drive-by shootings happening almost every day.
Raven Naidoo, also a CPF member, said he was called out yesterday to come and help contact law enforcement, as people had been shot. He said effective policing was needed.
“We just want peace in this community,” he said.
Naidoo said it was not pleasant to hear screams and see families crying because they had lost loved ones in a drive-by shooting. He said enough was enough, but also suspected that the shooting had to do with drugs.
Police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said SAPS Wentworth were investigating a case of murder and five charges of attempted murder. He said a 22-year-old man died in Woodville Road on Tuesday.
“The six victims were seated outside a tuckshop when unknown suspects alighted from their vehicle, a black SUV, and opened fire on the victims, then fled the scene. A manhunt for the suspects is under way,” said Netshiunda.
Netshiunda confirmed that people were killed at KwaMashu Hostel. He said three people died on the scene and one died at the clinic.
“The other three people shot were rushed to a nearby health facility. It is alleged that 20 armed suspects arrived at the hostel and opened fire. The police are investigating cases of murder,” he said.
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