City of Cape Town Link

Gun conviction rates: Vast majority of cases don’t go to trial

<p>While a SAPS media release claims conviction rates of 80-90% in illegal firearm court cases, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says the vast majority of illegal firearm cases never make it to trial. </p>

<p>‘Claimed conviction rates of 80-90% are misleading due to how many cases never go to trial. Our experience is that despite City policing operations removing over 400 illegal guns from the streets every year, the vast majority of these cases do not go to trial due to our broken criminal justice system, which secured convictions in just 5% of the 1 670 cases of illegal guns seized by City officers over four years.<br> <br>‘This is mainly due to a lack of SAPS resources for investigations, with around 70% of cases not proceeding due to incomplete investigations, outstanding ballistic and DNA reports, or insufficient evidence gathered.<br> <br>‘We stand ready to help gain more convictions for the sake of long-suffering communities where the poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit by violent crime. As it stands, municipal officers have the power to arrest and seize firearms, but have not yet been given criminal investigative powers to build case dockets for successful prosecution - powers which the Police Minister can immediately devolve to our well-trained officers by way of regulations under the SAPS Act. We will soon submit draft regulations to the national Minister for consideration, and have already workshopped these with SAPS and other stakeholders at a regional level,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.<br>Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, said City case-tracking data shows that low conviction rates are largely due to the lack of detectives and investigative capacity within SAPS, outstanding ballistics and DNA reports, and slow court and prosecution processes. <br>‘It is important to understand how a conviction rate is calculated not to cause the public to misunderstand the issue. There is a difference between a conviction rate that measures the success of a number of limited cases that go to court, compared to the overall amount of arrests resulting in convictions. The two are vastly different.<br> <br>‘Each of our cases were tracked through the local courts as our teams diligently recorded the outcomes on each matter. The 5% conviction rate was calculated and derived from the number of arrests we recorded. When looking at the statistics presented by SAPS, it is clear that a fundamental component of their calculation is absent: they have not indicated exactly how many of the cases actually went to court. It is feasible to get a conviction rate between 80% and 90% when you are only measuring the portion of the cases that make it to court.<br> <br>‘According to the SAPS statistics for the period between January 2020 and December 2024 a total of 13 727 arrests were made for the illegal possession of firearms. If the average conviction rate of 85% is to be believed, that would mean that SAPS obtained a staggering total of 11 668 convictions if every arrest actually made it to trial. In addition, this total would need to be confirmed by the Director of Public Prosecutions,’ said Ald Smith.<br> <br>Ald Smith explained when a firearm arrest is executed by City enforcement officers, the firearm and docket is handed over to Saps detectives who are mandated to see these matters through court.<br> <br>‘The City of Cape Town is committing to assisting Saps to address the gun violence. We believe that our track record has shown that despite the limited resources and policing powers we have made a massive impact in the fight against crime and we are ready to do more. It would be helpful if we could all agree on the broader definition of conviction rate which would aid the public in better understanding the issues,’ said Ald Smith. <br> <br>The City has introduced a special training module to ensure all its officers have the necessary statement-writing and docket-building skills, given that SAPS Forensic Crime Scene Investigators are often not immediately available to respond to crime scenes. The City also maintains an open door policy for any SAPS investigating officers who need to follow-up on specific case dockets with City arresting officers.</p><p><strong>The City’s research has revealed that of the 1 670 illegal firearms recovered by Safety and Security services from the period January 2021 until January 2025:</strong></p><ul><li><div style="text-align:left;">81 cases (4,8%)resulted in a guilty verdict</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">126 cases (7,5%) are enrolled and the trial under way, many suffering months or years of delay waiting for ballistics testing</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">75 cases (4,5%) await the NPA’s decision to prosecute</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">38 cases (2,3%) have warrants of arrest issued, some as far back as 2021, with the accused on the run</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">152 cases (9%) have outstanding ballistic or DNA reports</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">180 cases (10,8%) were ‘provisionally withdrawn’, meaning the case is not dropped, but that suspects remain out on bail because the NPA and SAPS still need to finalise the criminal docket before it is ready to bring to court.</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">826 cases (49,5%) were deemed by the NPA to either have insufficient evidence (320) or no prospects of successful prosecution (506), a stark indication of the lack of detective resources to conclude a comprehensive investigation</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">111 cases (6,6%) are either being transferred between stations or deemed to have the incorrect case particulars</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">12 persons (1%) cannot be tried as they are deceased, and a further five cases resulted in a not-guilty verdict</div></li></ul><p> <br><strong>The City continues to invest in growing its policing resources, including:</strong></p><ul><li><div style="text-align:left;">Over 1 200 officers deployed to major crime hotspots via the LEAP initiative in partnership with the Western Cape Government</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">Further growth of over 1 100 uniformed officers since 2021, including the upcoming deployment of 700 more officers to provide dedicated neighbourhood policing capacity in each ward and to escort service delivery teams in unsafe areas</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">A major R800m safety technology investment for smarter policing, including drones, dashcams, gunshot detection, aerial surveillance, CCTV, dashcams, bodycams, automated number-plate recognition, and the digital system to coordinate it all, known as EPIC.</div></li></ul><p><strong>End</strong><br></p>

2025-06-03T22:00:00Z

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