Police officers’ use of firearms need to be far more strictly controlled, KwaZulu-Natal monitor and researcher Mary de Haas said on Wednesday.
In a year-end review, De Haas said gunshot wounds in Durban alone accounted for numerous deaths and that these ”coincided with the flooding of weapons into the province”.
”The conduct of some police members is part and parcel of the gun problem,” she said.
De Haas said research by Professor Steven Naidoo at the Gale Street mortuary in 1988 revealed that gunshot wounds accounted for 16,3% of ”homicides” in Durban.
By 2003, the proportion of gunshot deaths had jumped to 52,3%.
”The latest 2007 figures for the eThekwini metro area, based on data from three mortuaries, show a continuing high rate of 44%.
”While there is no comparative data for other urban and rural areas in KZN, the widespread presence of weapons suggests that Durban may not be atypical.”
De Haas said some police officers were abusing their service pistols ”killing themselves, their partners and other community members”.
” — Police claiming that they come under attack, shoot suspects dead, with at least 19 known deaths at the hands of police during the last
four months of 2008.
”Some achieved notoriety during 2008 when they threatened other motorists while driving in blue-light vehicles.”
She said there was a need ”for far stricter control” over the use of
guns by police officers.
De Haas noted that even the taxi industry appeared to have easy access
to large quantities of weapons.
”The failure of the police to take a firm stand against taxi lawlessness, through instituting regular roadblocks and searches for weapons … suggests that they are not serious about eradicating this type of conflict, which costs so many lives each year.”
She said many lives had been lost because the government had failed to take decisive steps to rid the country of illegal weapons.
”A good start would be to disarm taxi operators, and to form a hand-picked national team to investigate all reports of illegal weapons, including those in the possession of rogue elements of the private security industry.” – Sapa