More people have died as a result of stab wounds than from gunshot wounds in the past five years. Since 2010 to date, 38 725 people have died due to stab wounds and 25 869 as a result of gunshot wounds. This is revealed in a reply from the minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi in Parliament to a question of Dr. Pieter Groenewald of the Freedom Front Plus. Statistics are based on the number of bodies in state mortuaries according to the Forensic Pathology Services of the Department of Health.
“President Jacob Zuma and the minister of Police, Mr. Nathi Nhleko, is always quick to say the number of firearms have to be reduced as it is the biggest cause of violent crime. This statistics prove them wrong. If the figure of the Police for murders are compared and accept that all gunshot wounds were also murders, which is not the case, gunshot wounds have in the past three years been responsible for 35% (34,9; 35,1; 35,1) of the figures for murder. Stab sounds in the same period were however responsible for 50,5% (56,8; 45,6; 46,2) of the murder figures. These statistics are once again proof that legal firearm owners are unreasonably and unnecessarily targeted, as if the possession of a firearm is the big reason for violent crime in South Africa,” Dr. Pieter Groenewald, chief spokesperson on Police for the Freedom Front Plus says.
In the past five years, the most stab wounds were in the Eastern Cape with 11 423 incidents and the least in the Northern Cape with 1 217 incidents. In the same period, the most gunshot wounds were in KwaZulu-Natal with 6 472 incidents and the least in the Northern Cape with 132 incidents.
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