IN CONVERSATION WITH DR. STANLEY MAPHOSA
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Around the world, it marks the permanent removal of firearms from circulation. In South Africa, the picture looks very different. A new briefing published today by Gun Free South Africa shows that South Africa's firearm relicensing system is collapsing, with applications dropping 74% since 2021/22 – from 213,631 to just 55,936 last year. A significant and growing number of gun owners have stopped renewing their licenses. Under the Firearms Control Act, every one of those firearms is now illegally possessed. The Supreme Court of Appeal warned in 2020 that unlicensed firearms pose a real risk of being stolen or lost and ending up in criminal hands, and that without an effective relicensing system, firearms endanger lives. That warning has been realized in that civilians reported an average of 8,000 firearms lost or stolen each year over the past three years.
Guns are the leading weapon used to commit murder and attempted murder in South Africa. An average of up to 30 people are shot dead every day, more than die on our roads. What drove the collapse in relicensing? It is a combination of factors that include among others: legal uncertainty following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling that was widely misread to mean gun owners no longer needed a valid license; mis- and disinformation from gun lobby groups; and a failure by SAPS to enforce the renewal and termination provisions of the Firearms Control Act.
These failures contrast sharply with a 2016 SAPS directive on license renewals which saw relicensing applications more than double in its wake. The lesson is straightforward: when gun owners receive clear messaging backed by meaningful consequences, they respond. Dr Stanley Maphosa, the Executive Director of Gun Free South Africa, said: "South Africa already has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the world. What this briefing shows is that we are letting a crisis grow that we have the tools to address. The law hasn't changed.
A gun owner without a valid license is breaking it. What's missing is the political will to say so clearly, and to act on it. We are calling on government to treat this as the emergency it is." Gun Free South Africa is calling for four urgent steps: clear public communication from government confirming that the 2022 Constitutional Court ruling does not remove the obligation to hold a valid license; a coordinated national compliance strategy to identify and contact gun owners in illegal possession; amendments to the Firearms Control Act to close gaps in the current law; and a national firearms amnesty, with surrendered firearms to be destroyed.
Guns are the leading weapon used to commit murder and attempted murder in South Africa. An average of up to 30 people are shot dead every day, more than die on our roads. What drove the collapse in relicensing? It is a combination of factors that include among others: legal uncertainty following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling that was widely misread to mean gun owners no longer needed a valid license; mis- and disinformation from gun lobby groups; and a failure by SAPS to enforce the renewal and termination provisions of the Firearms Control Act.
These failures contrast sharply with a 2016 SAPS directive on license renewals which saw relicensing applications more than double in its wake. The lesson is straightforward: when gun owners receive clear messaging backed by meaningful consequences, they respond. Dr Stanley Maphosa, the Executive Director of Gun Free South Africa, said: "South Africa already has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the world. What this briefing shows is that we are letting a crisis grow that we have the tools to address. The law hasn't changed.
A gun owner without a valid license is breaking it. What's missing is the political will to say so clearly, and to act on it. We are calling on government to treat this as the emergency it is." Gun Free South Africa is calling for four urgent steps: clear public communication from government confirming that the 2022 Constitutional Court ruling does not remove the obligation to hold a valid license; a coordinated national compliance strategy to identify and contact gun owners in illegal possession; amendments to the Firearms Control Act to close gaps in the current law; and a national firearms amnesty, with surrendered firearms to be destroyed.
