No one safe in SA, Amnesty International

[Nat Quinn]

Amnesty International said the government continued to fail in its constitutional duty to create a safe environment for all South Africans, saying that people’s right to life is violated every day.

The South African chapter of the global body was commenting after ten family members were gunned down in Pietermaritzburg on Friday morning, topping off a week that also saw two Soweto boys, aged five and six, killed and mutilated, and a former political activist was gunned down at a Cape Town train station.

Amnesty International executive director, Shenilla Mohamed, said the impunity with which killings were carried out, was exacerbating the situation and urgent action is needed from the government, including the police.

“It is the SAPS’s responsibility to conduct thorough, efficient, and transparent investigations into all killings, including this most recent mass murder, and ensure that the perpetrators are charged in accordance with the law. We can no longer allow horrendous crimes to continue with impunity, the justice system must begin to act as a deterrent,” she said.

Mohamed said gun-related violence threatens our most fundamental human right, the right to life, adding that easy access to firearms, whether legal or illegal, was one of the main drivers of gun violence.

“According to the latest quarterly crime statistics an average of 82 people are murdered in South Africa every day. No one is safe here,” she said.

 

source:No one safe in SA, Amnesty International (algoafm.co.za)

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