Today we are happy to report on the progress that we have made as the Eastern Cape as part of our contribution to the firearms amnesty period, which was launched by the Ministry of Police on 11 January 2010 and will be closed on 11 April 2010.
After the launch, we established a provincial task team to lead this project, which comprised of members of the South African Police Service (SAPS), officials from the Department of Safety and Liaison and Business Against Crime.
Since the start of this process, we have embarked on a massive campaign to communicate and raise awareness through engaging various stakeholders and communities. This was complemented by the distribution of flyers and posters to all 28 clusters, stations and other stakeholders’ offices.
We used the Back to School Campaign to send a message to learners during the opening of schools, visited police stations around the province to monitor compliance and offer guidance.
As we all know that government had declared February as the Safety and Security Month in an effort to enhance our campaigns against crime through mobilising and organising our stakeholders and communities to speak with one voice.
We have been using this month to raise awareness about firearms amnesty and encouraged people to surrender their firearms, including the licensed firearms, using our themes: “Together we can do more against crime”, “Awulethe Umshini Wakho – Surrender your firearm”.
We further used media platforms, especially radio talk shows. On the other hand, the police continued with their operations in different parts of the Province, which assisted in the recovery of firearms that were in wrong hands.
It is, indeed, gratifying to observe the positive response from the communities as they turned up in numbers in our campaigns and showed interest in the continuation of these campaigns. They further expressed concern about the proliferation of firearms.
Another interesting response was from the learners, who showed serious concern about the presence of firearms in their schools.
As a result of all this good work, we have been able to collect 306 firearms and 4 758 ammunitions throughout the Eastern Cape of which:
* 108 firearms and 3 095 ammunitions were confiscated
8 82 firearms and 734 ammunitions were surrendered as part of the amnesty process
* 116 firearms and 929 ammunitions were handed to the police voluntarily
In conclusion,
On behalf of provincial government, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the members of the SAPS, Department of Safety and Liaison officials, Business Against Crime, Community Police Forums, communities, churches, schools and the youth of this province.
We call upon anybody who has knowledge of whereabouts of firearms and ammunitions, and even the people who inherited firearms and did not apply for a licence to support this initiative.
Through this process, we can be able to collectively minimise the number of firearms in circulation as that contributes to the number of violent criminal activities.
I thank you.
Media contact:
Ncedo Kumbaca
Cell: 082 44 22388
Issued by: Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
18 February 2010
