South Africa anarchy: Armed citizens keep violence at bay, but that may change
After the jailing of ex-president Jaco Zuma for failing to appear at a corruption hearing, all hell Broke loose, with violent clashes with police, ransacked or set ablaze shopping malls and other buildings in cities across the country. Dozens have been killed—many of them innocent victims, firearms news reports.
Gideon Joubert, founder of Paratus reported that without armed citizens, fighting against mobs of rioters by several new gun-control amendments proposed by the government the situation would sink into further anarchy.
South Africans can currently own handguns, hunting rifles, shotguns, and even military-styled semi-auto rifles with “high cap” magazines under tight regulations. but that may change.
“The only thing that has been standing in the way of a violent mob of ultra-violent rioters who have been trying to gain access to various suburban communities or residential communities … has been a line of legally armed civilians—ordinary people with guns who have organized themselves into disciplined groups with a plan, who have shared resources and information, and in many cases are working closely with, and cooperating closely with law enforcement,” Joubert said in an online video. “Or where law enforcement is entirely absent, taking charge of the situation in order to ensure that the safety and security of their communities is not compromised by these roving gangs and mobs of violent rioters who seek to do them harm.
With reflection to the proposed amendments to the Firearms Control Act (FCA), if those amendments were in place, those communities would not be capable of protecting themselves,” Joubert said. “And seeing that the state has failed miserably, the minister of police has failed miserably, the president has failed in totality, the senior top brass of the SAPS has failed miserably and totally, there is not even any shred of … compliance with their constitutional mandate. The police have not secured the citizens of the republic and their property from violence and from this type of criminal predation. It has been ordinary citizens that have, for the most part, had to secure themselves.
“If the restrictions on people not being allowed to own more than a certain amount of sport shooting or hunting rifles, if they were banned from owning guns for self-defense, if they were banned from reloading, these communities would have been overrun and possibly even been wiped out by the mob.” Firearms News further quotes Joubert.
David Ansara and Frans Cronje of the CRA examine the underlying causes of the violent anarchy engulfing South Africa, and assess the ability of the state to resolve the current crisis. Frans and
The South African government has proposed legislative changes that would prohibit the use of firearms for the purposes of self-defence. David Ansara of the CRA speaks to security specialist, Gideon Joubert, about the proposed amendments to the Firearms Control Act.