Tracking the triggers: inside South Africa's firearm controversies

TRACKING THE TRIGGERS: INSIDE SOUTH AFRICA’S FIREARM CONTROVERSIES

Caryn Dolley, journalist, author

Tuesday 27 January  5.00 pm  COURSE FEES R115; Staff and students R58

 There will be a reception at 6.00 pm after the lecture.

This lecture is part of the Daily Maverick series of lectures.

As public trust in policing wanes, more reliance may be placed on private security to ensure residents’ safety. In mid-2025, the issue of private security firearms became a hot topic in South Africa when draft plans, aimed at tightening control of guns in the R50-billion industry, were announced. There are undoubtedly dodgy elements in private security, but it’s the same with the police. There are highly publicised accusations about police officers smuggling firearms to criminals. This lecture discusses various cases in South Africa relating to guns – from lapses in oversight, to lawbreaking, and pushback to state proposals.

Recommended reading

Dolley, C. 2019. The Enforcers: Inside Cape Town’s Deadly Nightclub Battles. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Dolley, C. 2021. To the Wolves: How Traitor Cops Crafted South Africa’s Underworld. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Dolley, C. 2022. Clash of the Cartels: Unmasking the Global Drug Kingpins Stalking South Africa. Cape Town: Maverick451.

Dolley, C. 2024. Man Alone: Mandela’s Top Cop – Exposing South Africa’s Ceaseless Sabotage. Cape Town: Maverick451.

Shaw, M. 2021. Give us More Guns: How South Africa’s Gangs Were Armed. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers.

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575439185

Caryn Dolley is an award-winning journalist and author based in Cape Town, South Africa. She has covered organised crime in the country for nearly two decades, exposing how South Africa fits into the global criminal landscape, how gangsters appear to have infiltrated aspects of the private sector, and how politics, rogue intelligence, and state corruption is infused in these noxious arenas.

Caryn has reported extensively on how state complicity in crime can produce - and fuel - street-level violence, including murders. She’s also investigated environmental crimes including plant poaching. Her work emphasises how organised crime saturates our everyday lives.

Caryn is the author of four published non-fiction books:

- Man Alone: Mandela’s top cop – exposing South Africa’s ceaseless

sabotage (Maverick 451, 2024)

- Clash of the Cartels: Unmasking the global drug kingpins stalking

South Africa (Maverick 451, 2022)

- To the Wolves: How traitor cops crafted South Africa’s underworld

(Maverick 451, 2021) - debuted at number one on the South

African non-fiction bestseller list.

- The Enforcers: Inside Cape Town’s Deadly Nightclub Battles

(Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2019)

For more: www.caryndolley.com