Give Us More Guns: How South Africa's Gangs Were Armed – Mark Shaw
Mark Shaw unpacks his book 'Give Us More Guns: How South Africa's Gangs Were Armed' (Camera: Kutlwano Matlala; Editing: Darlene Creamer)
The assassination of police investigator Charl Kinnear in Cape Town in 2020 was yet one more in a spate of murders related to the wider ‘guns to gangs’ saga in which state weapons are sold to South Africa’s criminal underworld.
It began in 2007 when Colonel Christiaan Prinsloo and his cronies began hawking thousands of decommissioned police weapons to gang lords. The subsequent investigation exposed the fault lines of conflict within the SAPS itself, raising serious questions around the effectiveness and conduct of policing, most notably within Crime Intelligence.
The sale of weapons to criminals, which the police service has tried to downplay, has resulted in a killing spree of unprecedented proportions.
It is one of the deadliest crimes of post-apartheid South Africa. Cape Town’s murder rate increased significantly with the city becoming one of the most violent places on earth.
Give us more Guns, based on hundreds of interviews with police, experts and the gangsters themselves, tells the story of this callous crime for the first time. Mark Shaw explores how the guns get into the hands of South Africa’s crime bosses and describes the bloodshed that ensues. He also uncovers accounts of rampant corruption within the police and in the state’s gun licensing system, probing the government failure that has been instrumental in arming the country’s gangsters.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Shaw is author of Hitmen for Hire (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2017) and director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Give Us More Guns: How South Africa's Gangs Were Armed is published by Jonathan Ball Publishers
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Showroom
Complete range of security sealing solutions including security seals bags and labels.
VISIT SHOWROOM
CSIR International Convention Centre (CSIR ICC) - the leading conference and events venue in Pretoria/Tshwane.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
