99% of murders in South Africa are committed with illegal firearms

New data from the acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, showed that 99% of murders in South Africa were committed with illegal firearms.

This substantiated the claim that legally licensed firearms are not the problem in South Africa and that disarming law-abiding citizens is a bad idea.

This information was released by Cachalia following a Parliamentary question from the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) .

The party asked the Minister how many people were murdered with a legal firearm owned by a licensed holder compared to an unlicensed firearm.

His answer showed that South Africa’s firearm crime problem stems from unlicensed firearms in the hands of criminals.

In the four financial years from 2022/23 to 2025/26, 41,297 murders were committed with illegal, unlicensed firearms.

In contrast, 393 people in South Africa were killed with legally licensed firearms in the same period.

Many of these likely occurred in self-defence, which means the actual number of unlawful murders committed with legal weapons is even lower.

• 2022/23: 120 murders committed with legal firearms versus 10,613 with illegal firearms.

• 2023/24: 90 murders committed with legal firearms versus 10,911 with illegal firearms.

• 2024/25: 108 murders committed with legal firearms versus 10,450 with illegal firearms.

• 2025/26: 75 murders committed with legal firearms versus 9,323 with illegal firearms.

The acting Minister of Police also revealed that firearms that disappeared from police possession pose a serious problem.

Over the last four years, 142 people in South Africa were murdered with firearms that had previously belonged to the police.

“The government should stop attempting to disarm honest citizens,” the Freedom Front Plus said in a press statement.

“It should rather focus on recovering and controlling the illegal firearms in circulation, including those stolen from law enforcement agencies.”

“In a country where criminals have a steady supply of illegal firearms, law-abiding citizens’ ability to defend themselves should not be curtailed.”