Lobby group warns of rising gun crime risk in Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwean civic group, the Xikolokolo Lobby Group, has petitioned Parliament to urgently tighten firearm regulation and enforcement, warning that the country risks a rise in gun-related crime if authorities fail to act decisively. In a detailed petition submitted on 17 April to the Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, the group raised alarm over what it described as inadequate regulation, enforcement and public accountability in the management of privately owned firearms. Copies of the petition were sent to key government institutions, including the President of Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission.

“We, the undersigned petitioners and concerned citizens of the Republic of Zimbabwe, respectfully approach the Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly, in terms of Section 149 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment No. 20) Act, 2013, which guarantees every Zimbabwean citizen the right to petition Parliament on matters of public interest, to urgently draw your attention to what we consider a clear, present and escalating national security threat arising from the inadequate regulation, enforcement and public accountability surrounding the ownership and possession of private firearms in our beloved motherland,” said lead petitioner Nothiwani Dlodlo. Dlodlo said Zimbabwe’s long-standing record of relative peace and public safety was now at risk, warning that failure to act could have long-term consequences.

“Zimbabwe has, for the greater part of its post-independence history, maintained a commendable record of relative social safety and public order, a distinction that increasingly few nations on the African continent can claim. This hard-won social peace is neither accidental nor self-sustaining. It is the product of deliberate legal frameworks, institutional vigilance and civic responsibility,” he said.

[paywall]

“The time has come to reinforce, modernise and rigorously enforce those legal frameworks, particularly as they relate to private firearm ownership, before the cracks already visible in our society widen irreversibly.” Dlodlo said one of the group’s key concerns was the outcome of the 2024 national firearm amnesty, which ran from 1 September to 30 September 2024 and yielded what he described as minimal compliance. During the amnesty period, all individuals and entities, including companies, gun dealers, security firms, gun clubs, farmers, miners, hunters and relatives of deceased licence holders, in possession of firearms or ammunition without valid authorisation were required either to surrender them to the nearest ZRP station or demonstrate full compliance with new regulatory requirements, including a US$100,000 financial threshold. The amnesty carried presidential immunity from prosecution for voluntary compliance.

However, Dlodlo said that period has now expired. “All persons who failed to surrender non-compliant firearms or to regularise their position are in violation of the Firearms Act [Chapter 10:09] and are subject to the full force of the law,” he said. According to Dlodlo, only 69 firearms were surrendered nationwide during the 2024 amnesty, compared with 580 unregistered firearms handed in during an earlier campaign.

[/paywall]