Programme director
The Executive Mayor of Rustenburg Local Municipality, Councillor Jeanette Dibetso-Nyathi
MMC for Public Safety in Bojanala Platinum district, Councillor Sammy Lebelo
MMC for Public Safety in Rustenburg local municipality, Councillor Mpengu
Councillors
Provincial Commissioner, Lesetja Beetha
The executive and member of the provincial community policing board
Cluster commanders and station commanders
Representatives of various religious groups
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
The Constitution of our country as adopted in 1996 guarantees every person the right to life and the right to security, which includes among other things, the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. It further guarantees that adequate protection of such rights is fundamental to the well being, social and economic development of every person.
Nevertheless, the increased availability and abuse of firearms and ammunition contributes significantly to the high and unacceptable levels of violent crimes in our society.
The strategic goal of our democratic government led by the African National Congress remains the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, peaceful, secured and prosperous South Africa. All our actions and policies are aimed towards achieving this goal because democracy enjoins that all South African patriots ought to work together to ensure the success of the process of our country’s reconstruction and development. We all have a responsibility to bring about a better life for all as individuals and as a collective.
Our police embarked on a number of operations including Operation Washa Tsotsi and Operation Duty Calls to advance towards the realisation of our Constitutional imperatives. Since the launch of Operation Washa Tsotsi in July last year, a total of 752 criminals were arrested in coordinated intelligence-led take-down operations and R25.5 million worth of evidence seized .I should stress however that these successes do not include arrests made during normal day to day policing and detective work.
Towards the December festive season, we also launched Operation Duty Calls to focus on visible policing at shopping malls and taxi ranks, as well as patrols of popular tourist destinations and operations against illegal firearms to counter the usual spike in crime rates during the holiday period. The operation resulted in a significant year on year decline in crimes, including armed robbery, burglary and theft of cash in transit.
The momentum we have gained during the operation gives us confidence that working together we can do more to reclaim our streets and our neighbourhoods from the minority that has for too long terrorised our communities and deprive all of us of enjoying to the full our hard won freedoms. It requires that we stand together against criminals, the police with our communities and our communities with the police.
Taking a stance in support of the war against crime that has claimed the lives of many innocent lives in our communities involves closing the market for stolen goods by reporting any person selling stolen goods to the police. It requires us to report any suspected criminal activities in our neighbourhood. It requires vigilance and united communities.
It requires us to stand up to be counted by reporting suspected drug dealers in order to safe our youth from destruction and our young girls and little children from prostitution and human trafficking.
Our aged should be able to walk home from pension pay points without fear of being accosted by criminals whose conscience has been depraved by their drug addiction. Our women and young girls should be able to walk our streets at any time without fear of being raped.
The active participation of our business community, churches and in particular youth in street committees, as volunteers in community policing forums gives us confidence that the war to reclaim our streets, our schools, our neighbourhoods and all of our communities from drug lords and criminals will be won.
The scourge of serious and violent crime remains one of the major concerns of our government and the overwhelming majority of peace loving people of our country who are yearning for democratic and accountable community policing.
The kind of violence that frequently accompanies business and house robberies, as well as car hijackings, can only be committed by people who have lost all sense of their humanity.
Guns are commonly used in committing this ghastly act and many innocent lives like those of the Khoza’s who were brutally murdered in this area are lost. We wish to thank the leadership and community of Lethabong for providing the police with valuable information that led to the arrest of the alleged perpetrators of the heinous crime had left the entire province and country shocked and angered.
Indeed programme director, guns have left many wives widowed, many children orphaned, generations of young men and countless husbands to rot in jail. They have thrown many lives of our youth who had in a moment of weakness and stupidity succumbed to peer pressure into turmoil.
In the distant past in our province, before our valued partners in the public transport sector matured into businessmen and women, guns were used in the taxi violence that claimed many innocent lives of commuters, taxi drivers and owners the majority of whom were caught in the crossfire of criminals who sought to take over the industry through the barrel of the very guns we are calling for their surrender.
The violence free taxi industry in our province is our pride hence we celebrate the partnership of the taxi industry and the response we have received in support of the 2010 Firearm Amnesty process. Counterparts of the provincial, regional and local structures and affiliates of the industry and in other parts of our country have a lot to learn from our province.
To take our fight against crime to a higher level, the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa launched the 2010 Firearm Amnesty, Operation “Awulethe Umshini Wakho, Surrender Your Firearm”.
The reason that prompted government through the minster to declare this Amnesty amongst other factors is that our country has a significant pool of illegal firearms in circulation which contribute to the high rate of serious and violent crime as well as firearm related crimes. The source of these illegal firearms range from stolen firearms from licensed members of the public to firearms illegally smuggled into the country. It is therefore common in nature that they are owned illegally and the State has little or no knowledge of them.
The amnesty which ends on 11 April seeks to advocate for the voluntary surrender for destruction of licensed firearms through the process prescribed in the Firearms Control Regulations, allow for the surrender of illegal firearms under the amnesty and to allow people who missed the cut off date for relicensing to license their weapons in terms of the Firearms Control Act (FCA).
The amnesty process should not be seen in isolation from our efforts to reduce the number of illegal firearms in circulation. It should be understood to be part of our holistic approach to reduce firearms in private hands and the resultant crime from the proliferation of these guns.
We therefore all upon Individuals who have knowledge of whereabouts of firearms and ammunition, those who inherited firearms and did not apply for a license and those who have legally sold or disposed of licensed firearm, but are still in possession of firearms parts or ammunition, and those who store firearms without legal authorisation to heed the call because after the closure of the amnesty process, there will be serious repercussions for being found in possession of these.
We also extend the call to manufacturers, gunsmiths and firearms dealers with surplus, obsolete and redundant firearms and ammunition, private security companies with obsolete, redundant or surplus firearms and members of the general public to heed the call, Awulethe Umshini Wakho, Surrender Your Firearms.
We are encouraged by the support the amnesty has received from members of the public and organisations. We wish to thank citizens who have heeded our call to rid our country of unwanted and illegal firearms by making use of both the amnesty of 2005 and the present amnesty.
Equally, we are encouraged by the support we have received from Business Against Crime North West, North West Taxi Council including all its regional structures and affiliates, Gun Free South Africa and even from some of the gun owner associations such as the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association including traditional leaders and more importantly our churches.
It is indeed a duty of every South African patriot to report any criminal activity including the illegal possession and dealing in firearms and ammunition. As a government that cares, we understand that all our people irrespective of race, class, gender, or religion deserve to live in a secured and comfortable environment.
Working together with communities, the ANC government will ensure that criminals are dealt with to the full extent of the law. To fight crime, we need to stand together. We must build and strengthen partnerships, and work together to speed up effective service to the people in order to succeed in our objective of creating a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, peaceful, secured and prosperous South Africa.
The journey that we have thus far travelled gives us confidence that we shall reach our goal of a society that is free from gun violence, a society that cares.
I wish all of you a crime free and blessed Easter. Drive safely to your various conferences and pilgrimages and Arrive Alive and in your sermons reiterate the call; Awulethe Umshini Wakho, Surrender Your Firearm.
Ke a leboga
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 381 9171
Fax: 018 381 9123
Cell: 083 629 1987
E-Mail: LKgwele@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Public Safety, North West Provincial Government
29 March 2010
