KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety, and Liaison, Sipho Hlomuka, has expressed concern at the number of gun-related incidents that claimed the lives of at least nine people and left three more wounded across the province in the last three days.
“Government is concerned about the increasing number of firearms and ammunition in our society,” Hlomuka said in a statement.
The publication reported that five people were killed in two shootings in uMlazi, south of Durban, at the weekend.
According to police, the bodies of a man and a woman were found at the first scene, while investigations led police to a second house, also in uMlazi, where they discovered the bodies of two more women and a man. Police said a 32-year-old man is recovering in hospital. The motive for the shooting is unknown.
In KwaMashu, two men were shot and killed at a men’s hostel. Provincial police spokesperson, Colonel Robert Netshiunda, said police responded to reports of a shooting, and upon arrival, two bodies of men, aged 36 and 42, were found inside a shack with multiple gunshot wounds.
On Monday, a police officer was gunned down and another policeman wounded in a shooting in Pietermaritzburg.
The KwaZulu-Natal Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations (also known as the Hawks) confirmed that they were investigating a case of murder following the shooting incident on Oribi Road. The 19-year-old suspect is expected to make his first appearance in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
On the M13, a man was shot dead during a drive-by shooting. It is alleged that a driver was travelling along the highway when another vehicle drove up alongside him and the occupants opened fire.
In another incident, two people were wounded in a house robbery in Mount Vernon.
Hlomuka said his department, arm in arm with law enforcement agencies, and community crime fighting structures are rolling out programmes targeting the proliferation of illegal firearms and ammunition.
“We are also working on strategies to strengthen collaborative crime prevention interventions in all districts. Indeed, we are working towards the realization of a safer and secure province,” he said.
Hlomuka called on community members to assist law enforcement with information that may lead to arrests.
“We urge members of the community to work with law enforcement and provide intelligence information to assist with the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of crime,” Hlomuka said.
Speaking to IOL, human rights activist Mary de Haas said the question needed to be asked as to where the firearms are coming from.
“There has to be stricter gun regulation; there are just too many guns on the streets,” she said.
Rural Criminologist at the University of Limpopo’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Professor Witness Maluleke, has branded KZN as a hub and capital city of gun violence for decades.
He said a lasting remedy to this situation requires a multidisciplinary approach, involving every societal stakeholder, “and accepting that our Criminal Justice System failed in all their attempts and they cannot win the war against gun violence in KZN, specifically, and other provinces, in general”.
-IOL
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