Gun Amnesty campaign hailed a success

By Ofentse Mokae
12 April 2010

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has hailed the national Gun Amnesty campaign a success.

This follows the seizure of more 32 000 firearms across the country as part of the Firearms Amnesty initiative.

The largest number of firearms recovered in Gauteng, followed by Kwazulu-Natal and the Western Cape respectively.

Buanews reports that of the 32 169 firearms surrendered at 240 police stations throughout the amnesty period, 27 percent were illegal.

Addressing the media Mthethwa described the campaign, dubbed Awlethu mshini wakho(surrender your firearm) as a success story in the battle against crime and illegal weapons.

More than 32 000 firearms were recovered across the country as part of the Firearms Amnesty initiative, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Monday.

Initially there were fears that people would be skeptical to hand in their illegal firearms due to the ballistic tests that are conducted to determine whether the firearm was used in any form of crime.

But Mthethwa said the number of firearms voluntary surrendered pointed to “ill-information by some quarters of society”.

“Our figures indicate that 53 percent of these (firearms) were voluntarily surrendered. This is most pleasing because prior to the launch of the amnesty there were already doubts on whether people will surrender legal firearms”, said the minister.

Buanews further reports that police recovered about 348 083 rounds of ammunition with 24 percent of them illegal while 52 were voluntary and another 24 percent confiscated during crime intelligence operations.

Mthethwa said between January and April this year, an estimated 109 582 firearms were destroyed adding that the destructions contributed to public confidence in the process.

The deadline for people to hand over their illegal firearms without facing prosecution was yesterday.