SAPS urged to destroy weapons regularly

THE proliferation of illegal weapons in the hands of criminals has Police Minister Bheki Cele so concerned he is considering a firearms amnesty.

But in the week the world marked Gun Destruction Day, none of the confiscated weapons in police custody were destroyed. The last time confiscated weapons were destroyed by the SAPS was in April.

Researcher at Gun Free SA, Claire Taylor, commended the police for every gun they confiscated, but said if the guns were stored in police stores for months on end, they were vulnerable to being lost, stolen and “leaked” back into the wrong hands.

Taylor was referring to the case of former Cape Town police officer Chris Prinsloo who is serving an 18-year sentence for arming gangsters with guns marked for destruction. “That police are not destroying guns in stores puts all of us at risk of gun violence, ” she said, urging police to destroy guns regularly.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said that the SAPS destroyed guns as and when the need arose.

Naidoo made reference to the latest destruction in April where 30 000 guns were destroyed. At the destruction display at the time, Police Minister Bheki Cele noted that 60 000 more guns were in the police storerooms. He said it was a firm belief by the SAPS that “the more guns we destroy, we lessen the circulation of guns in our society”.

However, he said, there were processes that had to be followed.

Violence monitor Mary de Haas said Global Gun Destruction Day “was such an important and symbolic thing”. She said an independent auditor should be appointed to monitor the guns and the storerooms.

Cele said yesterday while delivering his budget vote in Parliament that the SAPS were considering a firearms amnesty period to get illegal weapons out of society.