South Africa: Activists Furious With Delays in Child Shooting Case

20 October 2017

Fourteen-year-old Skhumbuzo Dube was shot dead on 4 June. His 12-year-old neighbour had got hold of his grandfather's firearm and was playing with it when he shot Skhumbuzo. The grandfather is on trial for gun negligence in the Ekangala Magistrates' court near Bronkhorstspruit. But for the third time on Wednesday the case was postponed.

Skhumbuzo is one of about 18,000 homicide victims in the country this year, and Bronkhorstspruit is a small town 60km from Pretoria. So it's unusual for a case like this to get public attention, but Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) has taken a special interest in it. Adele Kirsten, the organisation's director, explains that this case "demonstrates the significant weaknesses in the firearms control management system in South Africa, from the point of issuing a gun license to an individual to the point of destruction."

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