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Eastern Cape Community Safety MEC, Xolile Nqatha, has said that one of the significant challenges government needs to find an urgent solution to, is cutting down the supply and ridding the streets of unregistered, illegal firearms that are in high circulation in the province and the country at large.
Nqatha believes that illegal guns and ammunition are driving the systematic and seemingly targeted mass killings plaguing the province.
According to a statement issued by the Department of Community Safety spokesperson, Unathi Binqose, these remarks come after another mass murder in the province, where eight people were gunned down by unknown assailants while gathered to celebrate a friend’s birthday in Gqeberha on Sunday, January 29.
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Nqatha has pledged that the department will double its efforts, working with relevant authorities to rid the streets of illicit firearms and take them away from criminals' hands.
“There is no denying that most of these crimes are committed using illegal firearms. It is our responsibility as the government, working with our communities, to do all we can to protect our people. It is a responsibility we will not shy away from.
"Our immediate challenge is to apprehend the gunmen and the mastermind in these cases, without negating the challenge to cut the supply and rid our communities of illicit guns that are now becoming a threat to our very existence,” said Nqatha.
According to Binqose, this case comes barely a month after four family members were gunned down in their rondavel at Sulenkama in Qumbu. In November, seven people were also ambushed, shot and killed while preparing for a funeral service of a relative in Bityi just outside Mthatha in November.
“Four suspects in the Bityi mass murder case have been arrested and are currently on trial. These mass killings are some of the major contributors to the constantly higher murder rate in recent quarterly crime statistics releases in the province,” said Binqose.
