Gun-free homes the aim of Gun-Free SA

Gun Free South Africa is hard at work in Alexandra doing the groundwork for the launch of the organisation in a township considered one of the hotbeds of gender-based violence in the country.

Gun Free South Africa is a non-profit organisation that was established in 1994 to focus on creating safer environments by working closely with various communities to reduce gun violence.

According to the NPO’s project officer Marlene Matlala, Gun Free South Africa is working closely with various networks of community organisations in the township such as Alex Masiphephe Network of Organisations, which deals mainly with gender-based violence issues, as gun violence has also raised its ugly head in the GBV space.

She said Gun Free South Africa has been operating in the Western Cape all along focusing mainly on the Cape Flats which are notorious gang wars that have claimed many lives over the years.

“Our work as an organisation is to raise awareness within affected communities and in this case, we will be focusing on Alexandra, Thembisa south and north and Ivory Park where we shall hold workshops and dialogues with both male and female community members to sensitise them on the effects of gun violence and the need for gun-free zones within their communities.

“We also involve liquor businesses such as taverns and shebeens in our various interactions with communities. One of the goals of the interactions is to gather and form a database of women that have been victims of Violence where a gun was used and moms that have lost their children through the usage of a gun,” Matlala told Alex News in an interview.

She said the ultimate aim of the interactions is to form the Women and Guns Movement as a form of a support group for the victims and at the same time as an activist organisation where victims can lobby for gun-free zones and homes and also act as a referral point for counselling for the victims.

Although the main focus of the organisation currently is to assist communities in reducing gun violence, Matlala said the ultimate aim is to encourage people not to own firearms and also to turn their homes into gun-free spaces.

“We also help women victims of GBV where a gun was used to seek legal steps to have the gun removed from the house, including instances where the man may have used it to threaten her,” Matlala added.

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