SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 10 DECEMBER 2004 27 T he Firearms Control Act (2000) came into force on 1 July 2004. During preparations for the Act’s implementation, the South African Police Service (SAPS) developed a five-pillar strategy for combating the proliferation of firearms in South Africa (see box). Between 2003 and 2004, efforts were focused on pillars 2 and 3 of the strategy. Pillar 2 targets control processes and procedures, which includes the training of 640 Designated Firearms Officers during the 2003/04 financial year. Pillar 3 centres on reducing illegal firearms and the criminal use of firearms. Five pillars of the SAPS strategy to stem the proliferation of firearms in South Africa1 Pillar 1: Develop and maintain appropriate firearm-related regulators This pillar focuses on domestic legislation and regulations, national instructions and standing orders issued to manage the flow and possession of firearms in South Africa. Pillar 2: Develop and maintain effective control processes and procedures regarding firearms This pillar supports the implementation of the new Firearms Control Act within the Central Firearms Register and Registrar of Firearms. Pillar 3: Reduce and eradicate the illegal pool and the criminal use of firearms This pillar focuses on the control, detection of illegal origins, tracing, clearance of SAP 13 stores, audit transfer of firearms, and the reduction and management of state-owned firearms. Pillar 4: Prevent crime and violence through awareness and social crime prevention partnerships, including campaigns to educate and raise awareness among the public This pillar also includes encouraging responsible ownership and use of legal firearms. Pillar 5: Develop regional and sector cooperation This pillar involves the coordinated planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of firearms initiatives in the region. Sarah Meek and Noel Stott Institute for Security Studies smeek@iss.org.za noel@iss.org.za OPERATION SETHUNYA Proactive policing can solve the illicit firearms problem In 2003 the South African Police Service intensified its efforts to confiscate illegal firearms and check legal owners’ compliance with the firearms legislation. The initiative with the highest profile was Operation Sethunya (‘firearm’) run from April to September 2003. Sethunya was the largest ever police effort in the country focused exclusively on stemming the proliferation of firearms. The amount of weapons and ammunition collected during the operation is impressive, but what impact has it had on the number of illicit firearms in circulation? SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 10 DECEMBER 200428 MEEK AND STOTT Figure 1: Recorded cases of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition in SA, 1994/95-2003/04 Source: SAPS Annual Report, 2003/2004 Figure 2: Recorded cases of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition by province, 2003/04 Source: SAPS Annual Report, 2003/2004 0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 1994/95 10,999Total 1995/96 12,336 1996/97 12,750 1997/98 13,386 1998/99 14,714 1999/2000 15,387 2000/01 14,770 2001/02 15,494 2002/03 15,839 2003/04 16,839 Year 0 3,000 4,000 2,000 1,000 5,000 6,000 KwaZulu- Natal N u m b er o f ca se s 4,908 Gauteng 4,621 Eastern Cape 2,278 Western Cape 1,912 North West 1,026 Mpuma- langa 784 Limpopo 613 Free State 557 Northern Cape 140 SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 10 DECEMBER 2004 29MEEK AND STOTT The recording of firearm related offences depends largely on police action because in most cases, there is no ‘victim’ to report the crime. Statistics provided in the SAPS annual report for 2003/04 show that police interventions focused on firearms seem to be yielding results. Between 1994/95 and 2003/04, recorded cases of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition increased from 10,999 to 16,839 – an acceleration of 53% (Figure 1). In the most recent financial year, cases involving illegal firearms increased by 6% from their levels in 2002/03. An analysis of geographic trends shows that in 2003/04 the greatest number of cases was recorded in KwaZulu-Natal (4,908), followed by Gauteng (4,621) and the Eastern Cape (2,278) (Figure 2). The provinces that have benefited the most from increased policing of illegal firearms between March 1994 and March 2004 are the Eastern Cape (168% increase in recorded cases), North West (90% increase) and Gauteng (87% increase). Circulation of firearms in South Africa South Africans own more firearms than citizens of neighbouring countries. Moreover, the volume of firearms in this country places South Africa among the highest in the world for gun ownership calculated on a per capita basis. There are currently more than two million legal firearm owners in South Africa, with a total of 3,969,200 firearms registered to them.2 According to the Central Firearms Register, approximately 157,850 applications for firearms are received each year by the SAPS. The loss and theft of legal firearms is recognised as one source for illegal weapons in the country. An analysis by the Small Arms Survey of annual gun theft ratios shows that South Africa has one of the highest rates of stolen firearms. When guns reported stolen are calculated as a ratio of those legally owned, South Africa has a theft ratio of 1:150. This means that for every 150 licenced firearms, one is stolen. The comparison between South Africa and countries such as Canada, Finland, Australia and the USA, which also have high numbers of legal firearms, is illustrated in Table 1. More recent data shows that in 2003/04 of the 3,969,200 firearms registered nationally in South Africa, 20,164 were reported lost or stolen.3 This represents a theft ratio of 1:197 – an improvement on the 2001 ratio shown in Table 1. Nevertheless, the latest theft ratio is still significantly higher than the other countries analysed. This indicates that the SAPS’ focus on encouraging greater responsibility for the safe storage of firearms Table 1: Selected annual gun theft rates Country Year No. of guns No. of guns Theft ratio reported stolen legally owned South Africa 2001 23,000 3,500,000 1:150 Spain 1996 1,389 3,051,588 1:220 Australia 2001 4,195 2,165,170 1:520 Canada 2001 3,638 1,938,338 1:530 Philippines 1996 1,234 706,148 1:570 England and Wales 1996 3,002 1,793,712 1:600 Sweden 1996 1,400 2,096,798 1:1,500 Finland 1996 932 1,700,000 1:1,820 Norway 1996 339 990,000 1:2,920 Source: Reproduced from the Small Arms Survey 2004, p 63. Note: Theft refers to weapons reported lost or stolen to the SAPS. SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 10 DECEMBER 200430 MEEK AND STOTT by licensed owners makes sense. As part of this approach, the police checked 128,376 licensed firearms to verify that the weapon matched the license, and that regulatory requirements for possessing the firearm were met by the owner.4 Each year, a sizeable number of lost and stolen firearms are recovered by the police. In 2003/04 35,481 guns were recovered nationally.5 Some of these weapons were collected during crime prevention actions that formed part of Operation Sethunya. A comparison of the number of lost or stolen firearms with those recovered by police, shows an improvement in the recovery rate over the past year. Although more guns were lost or stolen than were recovered in 2002/03, this trend was reversed in the last financial year (Figure 3). It should however be noted that the firearms reported lost or stolen in one year are not necessarily the same ones that the police recover in that same year. It is nevertheless positive when the number of firearms recovered in a 12-month period Figure 3: Firearms reported lost or stolen, and recovered, 2002/03 and 2003/04 Source: SAPS Annual Reports 2002/03 and 2003/04 Figure 4: Number of firearms reported lost or stolen by province, 2002/03-2003/04 Source: SAPS Annual Reports 2002/03 and 2003/04 0 15,000 20,000 10,000 5,000 30,000 40,000 25,000 35,000 2002/03 2003/04 N u m b er 22,120 21,027 20,164 35,481 Reported lost or stolen Recovered 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 KwaZulu- Natal 6,789 4,174 Gauteng 5,273 8,034 Limpopo 2,992 738 Western Cape 2,409 2,383 Eastern Cape 1,778 1,431 North West 1,498 1,228 Free State 700 856 Mpuma- langa 584 1,170 Northern Cape 97 150 2002/03 2003/04 N u m b er 0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 Gauteng 8,306 16,360 KwaZulu- Natal 4,179 6,156 Western Cape 2,615 3,543 Eastern Cape 1,603 3,335 Mpuma- langa 1,394 966 North West 1,310 2,347 Free State 871 774 Limpopo 601 1,872 Northern Cape 148 128 2002/03 2003/04 N u m b er SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 10 DECEMBER 2004 31MEEK AND STOTT Figure 5: Number of firearms recovered by province, 2002/03-2003/04 is greater than the number lost and stolen. These figures should be monitored to establish whether the trend can be sustained. In its latest annual report, the SAPS committed itself to a 75% recovery rate for lost and stolen firearms in 2004/05. Considering that each recovered firearm will need to be traced back to its legal source, this will be a time and labour intensive effort. If successful, the results will be significant. An analysis of provincial trends shows that between 2002/03 and 2003/04, most firearms were reported lost or stolen in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (Figure 4). Most of the recoveries made by police were also recorded in these two provinces (Figure 5). This may correlate with the prevalence of gun ownership and the use of firearms in crime in these provinces, although further research would be needed to verify this. Operation Sethunya as the catalyst Although reducing illegal firearms has been a SAPS priority for several years, efforts intensified in 2003 with the launch of Operation Sethunya. The operation indicates that SAPS has adopted a zero tolerance attitude towards illegal guns and the negligent use of firearms and ammunition, focusing on the object of crime rather than the crime itself. According to Selby Bokaba, spokesperson for SAPS national commissioner Jackie Selebi, “in view of the unacceptable levels of crime in the country, police top management went back to the drawing board after perusing statistical data indicating the majority of violent crimes are committed with firearms. Operation Sethunya was conceptualised to give impetus to the SAPS firearms strategy.”6 The aim of Operation Sethunya was to reduce the use of firearms – which are easily available in South Africa – in incidents of crime and violence. Specific objectives were to trace and confiscate illegal firearms, and test whether or not citizens were complying with the Arms and Ammunition Act (No 75 of 1969) and its various amendments as Source: SAPS Annual Reports 2002/03 and 2003/04 Table 2: Comparison of Operation Sethunya and follow-on period Operation Sethunya: Normalisation phase: Apr–Sept 2003 Oct 2003–March 2004 Total Illegal firearms confiscated 13,859 12,116 25,975 Ammunition 1,562,873 117,067 1,679,940 Arrests for illegal possession of firearms/ammunition 3,082 2,908 5,990 Source: SAPS Annual Report 2003/04 SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 10 DECEMBER 200432 MEEK AND STOTT well as the new provisions of the Firearms Control Act (No 60 of 2000). Operation Sethunya was a nationally driven campaign, implemented in all nine provinces. Based on intelligence, it included roadblocks, inspection of premises and ‘stop and search’ actions, many of which were carried out in crime hotspot areas such as taxi ranks. When necessary and appropriate, the operation was run in conjunction with municipal police officers and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). The results of Sethunya are compared with the period following Sethunya in Table 2. The Sethunya results include the confiscation of more than 1.5 million rounds of ammunition and 13,800 illegal firearms. This resulted in more than 3,000 arrests for illegal possession of firearms and/or ammunition. It is interesting to note that during the normalisation phase that followed Sethunya from October 2003 to the end of the financial year in March 2004, a fairly high level of firearms confiscation and arrests was sustained (Table 2). Another important aspect of Operation Sethunya was the destruction of confiscated firearms. The SAPS has an ongoing policy to destroy obsolete and redundant arms as well as illegal or confiscated weapons. With respect to the latter, the aim is to reduce the number of firearms in circulation. In terms of scale and duration, these efforts have been among the most comprehensive undertaken worldwide.7 Destruction of confiscated firearms formed an important aspect of Operation Sethunya. Table 3 provides the numbers of firearms destroyed between the financial years 1999/00 and 2003/04. In the past, all destruction of firearms by the SAPS took place in Gauteng. However since August 2003, this process has been decentralised to the provinces. Operation Sethunya was also used to examine the public’s awareness of, and adherence to, the new Table 3: Number of firearms destroyed 1999/00 2001 2002 (through August) 2003/04 Obsolete state stocks 3,346 26,695 33,473 11,568 Confiscated firearms 9,070 3,328 Figure not available 75,529 Source: SAPS Annual Reports, 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2003/04 and S Meek and N Stott, Destroying Surplus Weapons. Note: Periods of data collection vary and are reproduced as presented in the sources used. SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 10 DECEMBER 2004 33MEEK AND STOTT Firearms Control Act. Those known to have up to five firearms in their possession were specifically targeted as part of these efforts. This aspect of the operation involved checking that legal firearm owners have the required facilities for the safe-keeping of their weapons. In particular, safes were checked for compliance the legal requirements and institutions such as arms dealerships were assessed in terms of whether they are registered and complying with the requirements of the Act. Security companies as well as state institutions also came under the spotlight as the SAPS audited their stocks of weapons. The audit found that at present there are 14,789 firearms in various government departments in South Africa, including 68 provincial institutions, 22 national institutions and 31 museums, excluding state security agencies. In addition, it was established that there were 3,252 registered security businesses, of which 1,643 were in possession of firearms, totalling 58,981 firearms.8 Those weapons that were considered prohibited or excess were confiscated. This aspect of the operation also resulted in a number of cases being investigated against institutions and security companies for not complying with the Act with respect to, for example, leaving firearms unattended or not storing them in a safe. Proactive policing makes a difference A review of trends regarding illegal firearms and ammunition in South Africa using data on confiscations and reported cases for the past ten years, suggests that police efforts are showing results. The increase in confiscations of illegal firearms between 1994 and 2004 shows the impact of focused policing efforts, as this crime requires active police engagement for detection. Likewise, the decrease in the number of lost and stolen firearms together with a simultaneous increase in confiscations, shows a clear reversal of the earlier trend. If this can be sustained, real reductions in the use of firearms in criminal acts may result. Effective monitoring of key indicators such as negligent loss, theft, recovery rates, the use of firearms in crime, compliance with the legislation, arrest rates for firearm related crimes, and the number of firearms that are destroyed, should provide further evidence about whether the approaches adopted by the SAPS are working. According to a SAPS assistant police commissioner, “the impact of Operation Sethunya on crime and violence has seen murder cases reported decrease by 8.3%, and attempted murder decrease by 12.6%.”9 While the decrease in the murder rate may not be directly attributable to Operation Sethunya, targeted campaigns do result in a high level of police visibility and increased community awareness. Moreover, the police themselves benefit through more focused training, skills development and allocation of resources. Operation Sethunya provides clear evidence that South Africa does indeed have a problem with illegal firearms, that the SAPS is capable of addressing the problem especially when it takes a targeted and focused approach, and that the police are serious about implementing the Firearms Control Act. Endnotes 1 South African Police Service Annual Report, 2003/04, pp 12-15. 2 W Hartley, Police chiefs rapped over gun control, Business Day, 9 September 2004. 3 SAPS Annual Report, op cit, p 12 4 SAPS Annual Report, op cit, p 11. 5 Ibid, p 12. Calculated based on provincial numbers, not total presented in report. 6 S Bokaba, Crime stats were not ‘sexed up’, City Press, 27 September 2003. 7 For a recent in-depth analysis and overview of the destruction of small arms and light weapons in South Africa, see S Meek and N Stott, Destroying Surplus Weapons: An Assessment of Experience in South Africa and Lesotho, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Geneva, and Small Arms Survey, 2003. 8 Audit reveals thousands of guns in State depts, Mail and Guardian Online, 17 September 2003, 9 Ibid.