From left: DA’s Mzamo Billy, ActionSA premier candidate, Zwakele Mncwango, AMC representative Seelan Archary, and ANC’s Nhlakanipho Ntombela, during the elections debate organised by Independent Media yesterday. l SHELLEY KJONSTAD/INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
Durban — Political parties, including the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, have expressed scepticism at the calls by provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi for new gun control and liquor acts.
Responding to the commissioner’s call during the election debate organised by Independent Media in Durban on Thursday, parties opposed the call.
They argued that taking away citizens’ rights to defend themselves with no guarantee from the state to defend them against rocketing violent crimes would not be a solution.
The debate, which hosted the ANC, ActionSA, the DA, Bosa and Roy Moodley’s African Movement Congress, was held at Regent Business School.
Speaking on behalf of the ANC, Nhlakanipho Ntombela said that his party did not think there was anything wrong with the existing laws. He said Mkhwanazi first had to deal with guns lost in the hands of his police officers before he could complain about guns lost in citizens’ hands.
On liquor outlets contributing to the crime, Ntombela said the problem was with the enforcement of liquor regulations rather than the law, adding that the liquor board needed to work with the SAPS to ensure compliance in that sector and there would be no crime taking place there.
Other parties said they wanted to understand Mkhwanazi’s context first. However, they frowned at his calls, with Bosa’s premier candidate, Ntokozo Biyela, saying his party did not think that disarming citizens would solve the problem since they were forced to defend themselves from soaring crime.
Mkhwanazi was in the hot seat on Tuesday during an eNCA town hall election debate that focused on crime in the province. He faced a barrage of questions from angry community members about the police’s failure to deal with crime.
The general said he was happy because people would be voting on May 29, adding that he hoped they would vote for people who would change policing laws, which he said hindered the police in dealing with crime effectively.
He said legislation needed to be changed to end crime. He singled out gun control and the liquor acts as the main contributors to crime.
Explaining how these acts hindered the police’s efforts to fight crime, Mkhwanazi said most of the illegal firearms that police confiscated had once been legally owned. Criminals accessed them by either breaking into homes and stealing them or robbing the owners. He added that the act controlling the issuing of gun licences could be amended and made stricter to minimise gun ownership. He said this would reduce the number of guns that ended up in criminals’ hands.
Mkhwanazi added that the act should not allow rifles or automatic guns, but limit ownership to a pistol.
“Many of these guns had their serial numbers scratched, which means they were legally owned. In the country, there are people who own big guns that can shoot an animal from 200m away using a telescope. So, if they can shoot an animal at that distance, what can stop them from shooting a human being from the same distance?
“There is no reason for those guns and the licence should be limited to a pistol,” said Mkhwanazi.
His criticism of legal owners was sharply challenged by a participant, Musa Dlamini, who defended the legal ownership of guns, saying he has had his licensed gun for over 20 years but had never killed anyone. Instead, he had saved many lives with it.
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