The South African Police Service has permanently removed 54 517 firearms from circulation since April 2022. This was done through a firearms destruction process. The destruction of the firearms took place yesterday in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng.
According to Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, more than 15 700 of these firearms were seized during crime prevention operations or they could have been voluntarily surrendered to the state.
More than 15 000 firearms destroyed
At the same time, the weapons could also have been forfeited to the State.
The National Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola was on hand to witness, the firearms demolition process.
Ballistic testing
Brigadier Mathe says, “All firearms that were destroyed today had been subjected to Ballistic testing to determine if they had been utilised in any commission of a crime.”
She added that officers have confirmed, that all the seized weapons had been cleared, during the testing.
She says through Operation Shanela, the police have to date recovered and/or confiscated close to 800 firearms since the inception of the high density operations.
Pose a threat
General Fannie Masemola added, “The SAPS will continue to intensify operations to detect and remove illegal firearms and ammunition from the streets of South Africa.”
He said these weapons pose a threat to the safety and security of the inhabitants of this country.
From the SAPS Website: CRIME STATISTICS
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has accepted a new and challeging objective of ensuring that its crime statistics are in line with international best practice. This will be achieved through a Memorandum of Understanding with Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), aimed at further enhancing the quality and integrity of the South African crime statistics.
The crime statistics generated by SAPS are an essential link in the value chain of the statistics system to inform policy development and planning in the criminal justice system. The collaboration with StatsSA will go a long way in enhancing the integrity of the SAPS crime statistics. It also ensures that policymakers have quality data to assist them with making policy decisions.
Call Crime Stop at 08600 10111 Website: www.saps.gov.za
