6-month amnesty for those with illegal guns in South Africa
The minister of justice and constitutional development, Jeff radebe, has announced a six month amnesty period for illegal firearms, starting 1 April 2017 and ending on 30 September 2017.
Speaking in a cabinet briefing, Radebe said he hoped the amnesty would reduce the circulation of illegally possessed firearms which will in turn result in the reduction of contact crimes.
He noted that the amnesty will focus both on those in possession of illegal firearms and/or ammunition in circulation (including those involved in one or more criminal activities), and those who inherited firearms and/or ammunition and failed to comply with the provisions of the Firearms Controls Act.
The minister of police, Nkosinathi Nhleko, is expected to provide further details closer to the commencement of the programme.
The decision to grant amnesty to illegal gun owners follows a SAPS report on Friday (3 March) which indicated that the biggest crime increases across the country happened in “the contact crime category”.
Notably, the so-called ‘trio crimes’ (carjacking, robbery at home and robbery at non-residential premises) all saw large increases – with carjacking seeing the biggest increase across all crime categories.
Read: South Africa’s latest crime stats: everything you need to know
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