- Illegal firearms and corruption are driving the Cape Flats’ deadliest gang war.
- Guns linked to corrupt officials have caused over 1,000 murders, with hundreds of victims being children.
- Community leaders are calling for stricter regulations and accountability to curb the violence.
With around 34 people killed in gun violence daily in South Africa, the influx of illegal firearms on the Cape Flats has seen equally lethal consequences.
With hundreds of firearms confiscated across the country in targeted operations, the continuous flow of guns still finds their way back into the hands of gangs.
With Gun Free South Africa estimating as many as two firearms are lost by police and up to 20 are lost from civilians every day, loss and theft is the leading cause for the influx of guns, with firearm smuggling and corruption adding to the deadly tally.
Money, an industry insider confirms guns are obtained through shipments from other provinces or robberies of licenced firearm holders.
Retired police brigadier Cass Goolam says the failure to report the theft of licenced firearms is a serious concern.
Noting many may be afraid of the consequences of poor gun handling, not reporting the theft bares greater risk, he says.
“We can’t buy guns, because we have cases against us,” Money says. “We robbed people of their guns, securities, bouncers. We don’t make jokes.”
With the evolution of gangs the use of machetes and knives have gradually evolved to include more firearms. This, as firearms – sometimes including machine guns, hand guns and rifles – have become more accessible.
“Way back, a massive gang would have one gun and many zip guns. Now, there can be hundreds of guns,” says Money. “If a gun is confiscated at your house, you are in big trouble. Because one gun is as strong as an army, if you lose it, you must make sure you get another gun. No matter what you must do, you need to get another one. The gang will beat you up, and you will end up in hospital. If you go out there and lose it. There is a punishment.”
Need for arms
With the constant threat over turf, the current gang war has entered its 10th year, officials confirm. With most cycles running a few months, this has been the longest and deadliest gang war in the Cape Flats, says Micheal Jacobs of the Mitchells Plain United Residents Association (MURA).
Money says guns are sacred and must be protected by gangsters.
“When two go out with a gun, there is someone watching to report back on what was done or if you got caught. You are never left up to your own devices,” he says.
“If you go out with a gun with five bullets and you come back with it empty but no one was killed, then you are messing. You will get beaten. You are wasting bullets.”
““You go out with one mission, we want to hear good news. If some one dies there, it is a celebration. It must be a rival gangster. We don’t go out there to hurt other people or innocent people,” he says.
With hundreds dying by stray bullets, this may not be the intention, but their mere location has seen the deaths of innocent people, often children.
Imitation firearms
With the increase in gun violence on the Cape Flats, residents live in constant fear amid the ringing out of gunshots day and night.
But while many may not be able to find real firearms, the creation of zip guns, and conversion of realistic imitation firearms to fire real bullets has become another concern.
Norman Jantjes, Mitchells Plain community policing forum chair says stricter regulations must be imposed on the sale of imitation firearms.
Currently, in South Africa the sentencing guidelines for imitation firearms can be comparable to that of regular firearms, carrying a similar sentence if used in the process of a crime. While a process exists for the sale of firearms, including competency tests and a background criminal check, no regulations exist on the sale of pellet, gas and plastic guns.
The fake guns appear real in colour and shape.
Corruption and the “Prinsloo Guns”
In January, the Cape Flats Safety Forum hosted a protest outside the Mitchells Plain Police Station following the discovery that 15 firearms and exhibits went missing from the police station in November last year. This was the second instance of gun theft from the station, with the last reported instance in 2017.
Abie Isaacs, forum chair, says less than 50% of these firearms have been recovered, with the no communication on the confiscations of any other firearms in the most recent incident. In another notorious police corruption case that saw 2 000 firearms sold to Cape Flats gangsters known as “The Prinsloo Guns” prompted GunFree South Africa to lodge a class action in May this year.
Goolam, who was one of the officers who had discovered the leak, says firearms linked to confiscations and listed as sent for destruction were discovered in Mitchells Plain and other areas of the Cape Flats.
Major-Gens Peter Jacobs and Jeremy Vearey, registered Project Impi in December 2013.
Their investigation led to the arrest in 2015 of a senior police official, Col Christiaan Prinsloo, a Gauteng provincial commander of Firearms, Liquor and Second Hand Goods.
During the investigation, Prinsloo confessed to working with Col David Naidoo, an operational officer in the Confiscated Firearms Store at Silverton in Pretoria, to smuggle guns to gang leaders on the Cape Flats. Prinsloo entered into a plea bargain with the State.
To date, 888 of the guns stolen by Prinsloo and Naidoo were forensically linked to 1 066 murders in the Western Cape between February 2010 and 5 June 2016.
Of these, 187 were children between the ages of one and 17, shot between February 2010 and December 2015 with Prinsloo Guns, 67 of whom were killed.
