Gun crimes in South Africa are increasing at an alarming rate. The problem has been put into the spotlight by many shootings happening in different parts of the country.
According to the county’s annual crime statistics, gun crimes in South Africa are increasing at an alarming rate. An average of 23 people are shot and killed in South Africa every day and some of these crimes go unnoticed.
This is wrong and instances such as these should draw attention to how and why so many people are dying because of gun violence.
Is there a pattern?
One of the many legacies left by the repressive racist apartheid regime was the extremely high levels of violent crimes. Killings with guns have been rising year on year for a decade.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, reports that there are about 3.8 million unregistered illegal firearms in circulation in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. The biggest source of illegal handguns is theft from legal owners.
On the 9th of July 2022, a mass shooting took place at a tavern in Soweto, Gauteng, South Africa. 15 people were unfortunately shot and killed in the incident.
In East London, Duncan Village residents reacted with shock at the shooting of three young people, just days after the burial of 21 young people who died at Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park.
The motives of some of these shootings are unknown.
I don’t have a solution nor do I condone these senseless killings, but I do understand the loss of hope in a society with more young and unemployed people than adults.
We should be horrified and outraged by these killings. Perhaps we are not an immortal society but a hopeless one.
