South Africa: How Gun Administration Can Save Females’s Lives

Unlucky enforcement of gun control measures and rising firearm ownership correlate straight away with extra ladies folk dying

As we sign World Females’s Day on 8 March, South Africa faces a devastating femicide crisis. In accordance with the most up-to-date annual crime statistics, as much as fifteen ladies folk had been murdered on day by day basis in 2023/4. This ravishing quantity represents bigger than a doubling of the loss of life toll since 2020, when “only” seven ladies folk had been murdered day-to-day.

While the execute statistics are no longer completely accurate and COVID restrictions impacted on intimate accomplice killings all the device in which by lessons when alcohol sales had been fully banned or carefully restricted, the evidence is definite: guns are the leading weapon in these murders.

Most in model Medical Study Council (MRC) be taught analysing Two decades of femicide records shows that the percentage of girls folk shot ineffective has reached its perfect level ever. Coinciding with the secure bigger in gun-linked femicide is a 58% secure bigger in applications for new gun licences and an additional 160,000 licensed guns in civilian hands, and thus properties all the device in which by the country. That is well-known because nationwide be taught shows that a accurate gun is extra doubtless to be fashioned in intimate-femicide suicides (when a accomplice of a girl kills her and then commits suicide within per week).

What makes this crisis in particular tragic is that all of us know femicide is preventable. South Africa has proven this earlier than. Between 1999 and 2009, we witnessed a excellent decline in femicide rates, attributed essentially to the implementation of the Firearms Administration Act (FCA) of 2000. This laws, complemented by centered policing interventions to decrease gun availability, saved roughly 4,500 lives all the device in which by five South African cities between 2001 and 2005.

On the opposite hand, the gains made have been step by step eroding. Unlucky enforcement of gun control measures and rising firearm ownership correlate straight away with extra ladies folk dying. Disturbingly, be taught shows that women folk are most liable to being killed by their intimate partners, and accurate guns usually have a tendency to be fashioned in intimate-femicide suicides.

The case of Sasha-Lee Shah, murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2022, illustrates the lethal consequences of system screw ups. Despite a protection tell the place a Justice of the Peace quick police to do away with his licensed firearm, the Designated Firearms Officer didn’t behave. In her utility, Sasha-Lee wrote, “I cannot live a normal life with continuous stalking and threats from this man. I do not fear what he is capable of as he has a firearm … I fear for my life everyday with his threats.” As a results of notify negligence, her fears proved tragically prophetic.

We face quite a lot of challenges imposing the provisions of the FCA that would protect ladies folk.

Courts fail to portray domestic abusers unfit for gun ownership. There is now not any certain process to be obvious that firearms are surrendered by gun homeowners declared unfit. Worthy extra relating, as much as 1,000,000 gun homeowners stay exempt from the FCA’s competency certification and licence renewal requirements due to the a 2009 meantime courtroom tell that has never been discharged. Systemic dysfunction at the Central Firearms Registry additional undermines enforcement efforts.

Any interventions to address SA’s femicide – and execute – crisis must recognise the characteristic of gender. Men are overwhelmingly the victims of most crime and with out reference to the sufferer’s gender, the perpetrator is nearly continuously a man. This raises questions about the link between masculinity and violence and the unparalleled vulnerability of fellows being victims of crime and violence, as be taught shows a cease affiliation between men who’re victimised turning into offenders.

A accurate now and rapid device to address the execute crisis in SA is to focal point on the weapon. President Ramaphosa acknowledged our gun violence crisis in his 2025 Pronounce of the Nation Address, nonetheless phrases must translate into concrete action.

Six urgent steps can protect ladies folk’s lives:

First, streamline the process for declaring at-possibility folks unfit to hang firearms and be obvious that their guns are bodily surrendered.

2d, discharge the 2009 meantime courtroom tell that exempts apartheid-generation gun licences from the FCA’s “fit and proper” requirements. This 16-year loophole must be closed accurate now.

Third, change into the dysfunctional Central Firearms Registry into an effective unit, even though it device outsourcing its management.

Fourth, well practice and retain responsible police officers to blame for firearm-linked issues, in particular those conducting background checks on licence candidates.

Fifth, secure it a actually vital for magistrates and police officers to accurate now take away guns in domestic violence instances, despite whether or no longer victims particularly seek info from this action.

Lastly, completely disqualify at-possibility folks from gun ownership. Study shows that proactively restricting secure entry to to guns by at-possibility folks is much less complex than reactively removal them. Permanent disqualification would mean making a declaration of unfitness a lifetime ban and recognising drunk using convictions as grounds for prohibition, given the established link between alcohol abuse and violence.

Severely absent from South Africa’s National Strategic Device on Gender-Essentially based fully mostly Violence and Femicide is any sign of the characteristic firearms play in this crisis. This glaring omission must be addressed, and a gender-responsive National Motion Device on firearms must be developed.

The evidence is unequivocal: Stronger gun control saves ladies folk’s lives. Now we have proven this earlier than in South Africa, and we are able to shut it all any other time. However we must act now.

The creator is with Gun Free South Africa. This article is essentially essentially based on a policy briefing: Gun-linked femicide in SA over 25 years: A call to action

Views expressed are no longer necessarily GroundUp’s.