Police and army stockpiles, not private gun owners, are feeding South Africa’s illegal firearms market, experts warn after Boksburg killings.
A deadly drive-by shooting in Reiger Park, Boksburg, has cast a harsh spotlight on South Africa’s failing firearm control systems, with experts warning that state armouries – not private citizens – are the primary source of illegal weapons.
As police hunt for suspects in the killing of six people on Saturday, revelations of widespread losses, corruption and regulatory collapse within South African Police Service (Saps), South African National Defence Force (SANDF), and metro police departments have reignited calls for urgent reform.
From missing rifles and grenades to seized guns reappearing in criminal hands, the country’s security apparatus stands accused of arming the very violence it’s meant to prevent.
Drive-by killings reignite calls for gun reform
AfriForum community safety spokesperson Jacques Broodryk said South Africa’s 502 state entities collectively own around 2.2 million firearms, yet compliance with the Firearms Control Act is abysmal.
“The South African Police Service is the only entity that regularly reports losses to the Central Firearms Registry, while the South African National Defence Force and others fail to do so,” Broodryk said.
He said the result is that state armouries, not private safes, are the true source of South Africa’s illegal guns.
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Broodryk said Saps has lost an estimated 18 000 to 20 000 firearms in the past decade, while the SANDF lost at least 57 R4/R5 rifles that disappeared between 2017 and 2020. An additional 19 assault rifles were stolen from an army base in 2019.
“Ammunition and even grenades have gone missing, with recovery rates near zero,” he said.
Broodryk said correctional services lost 19 firearms and 295 rounds in four years, while a single metro police department claimed to have lost 700 firearms in one year.
Correctional services lost 19 firearms and 295 rounds in 4 years
“To add insult to injury, it was recently revealed that police and military firearms are also being smuggled from Namibia, right into the hands of criminal gangs.”
Broodryk said the South African government’s complete failure to secure the borders has long empowered smugglers to move arms shipments into the country.
Rural criminologist Witness Maluleke said the very same seized guns, some of them linked to multiple heinous crimes, are “miraculously’ found in the hands of criminals, with the help of corrupt Saps personnel.
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“It is a sad reality, but our Saps members do sell the seized guns to criminals and this creates a state of lawlessness,” he said.
“Those who are supposed to protect the nation are part of the problem. Therefore, a gun-free South Africa is an impossible reality for the country.”
Prof Anthony Minnaar, who is a research associate in the department of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Limpopo, said the Central Firearms Registry has, for a number of years, been dysfunctional with the issuing of new and reissuing of old firearm licences.
Central Firearms Registry dysfunctional
“In addition, as is coming out of the Madlanga commission, the increase of illegal firearms is apparently in the infiltration by criminals of private security companies with the firearms issued to them being channelled to criminals,” said Minnaar.
“This has got nothing to do with society as a whole, but a symptom of the growing lawlessness in the absence of effective leadership in the Saps and poor policing on the ground.
“This is exacerbated by mismanagement, underfunding of informer systems and staffing shortages of experienced detectives.”
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