A crisis of epic proportions is unravelling — not in a warzone but just on our doorstep in Westbury, a little west of the Johannesburg city centre.
Illicit guns are unleashed on the community. Now, no longer under the cover of darkness but in broad daylight, young men fell one another in a hail of bullets fighting gang turf wars.
It is such a worrying development that every step, however little to quell the bloodletting, is welcome, as was the community meeting on Thursday when the city fathers and legislators in Johannesburg descended on the area to find a solution to the wanton killings.
The Gauteng chapter of Gun Free South Africa, in association with the city, joined hands with the restless community to try get to grips with the gang warfare. Word from the city goes: "The choice of Westbury as the venue is significant, as the community continues to grapple with the devastating impact of gun violence, with innocent lives lost and families left to mourn their loved ones."
Mothers who have lost their children to gun violence, the city communique says, are expected "to share their lived experiences and highlight the human cost of gun violence in the community". Nothing is as grave as the spectre of a mother having to bury her child. Sadly, this is virtually a daily occurrence in communities beset by gun violence.
In Reiger Park, east of the city, young Regan Collis, alongside two co-accused Jamal Meyer and Elvino Crafford, are facing murder and robbery charges — including for the deaths of two Anti-Gang Unit members. Before mowing down the police, they had allegedly killed two young women in the township.
It is high time areas such as Westbury and Reiger Park — and many others under the jackboot of violent crime — turned into gun-free zones.
Homicide statistics make for chilling reading. Firearm-related murders grew significantly, rising from 31% to 44% of all homicides between 2020 and 2025, one report says. A casual Google search says that according to South African Police Service annual crime data, more than 27 600 people are killed in homicides annually, placing the national homicide rate many times higher than the global average.
It is not rocket science that gun violence is a severe "public health emergency that places immense strain on emergency medical services and trauma units" where EMS staff are often hijacked when called out to incidents.
Young men, like Collis, from "marginalised and high-density urban communities face the highest risk of becoming victims of firearm fatalities" and gun-toting thugs — until society intervenes.