Dispossessed gun owner seeks justice
Xakekile Stefaans Reuben has been waiting for almost a decade to clear his name.
He claims his legal firearms were taken from him by policemen who accused him of being a criminal and unfit to own a firearm.
Reuben owns a herd of sheep and shared grazing with other farmers. He was involved in a disagreement with one of the people who used the same grazing land as him. The farmer allegedly set his dogs on his pregnant sheep, and when he raised this matter with him, their argument escalated.
In rage, he shot one of the dogs and was arrested and declared unfit to carry the firearm. The court, however, dismissed
the case.
“I was arrested and charged with shooting and killing a three months old dog. It was true that I killed a dog but not a three months old dog. I admitted that I acted out of rage because I have been talking to this man (the owner of the dogs) for a long time and it seemed as if he was not willing to listen to reason.
“Those police called me a criminal and took my gun away from me. But if the case against me was so strong why did the magistrate throw it out of the court. It is because he realised that these men did not have enough evidence against me because I was protecting my sheep against the dogs.”
He was arrested and charged with negligently discharging or handling of a firearm. The untitled document from the crime administration system stated that the case was withdrawn.
However, Reuben received a letter from the Botshabelo Police Station written on November 19, 2003 declaring him unfit to own a firearm. The letter ordered him to submit his private firearm, ammunition, magazines, firearm licence, and competency certificate. It also stated that “within 60 days it is your responsibility to find a buyer, or the above property will be forfeited to the state if you’re not making an appeal”.
Reuben gave up his gun and appealed against the findings by the police. But nothing happened. He filed a complaint at the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) in 2003, which responded and acknowledged that they had received the complaint.
The letter dated December 11, 2003 read: “This is a receipt for the complaint you have just filed. It bears a Complaint Number above which identifies the complaint. You will be contacted during the processing of this matter and at the time a decision is reached concerning a final disposition”.
According to Reuben, this did not happen. The ICD wrote another letter on October 22, 2007 with the same contents as the first letter.
“In a desperate attempt to get my gun back, and justice, I turned to the department of police for help. But I was told my appeal has expired.”
This is an extract from the letter with the department letterhead and with the Firearms Appeal Board address which was sent to Reuben in March 2011, responding to his letter he wrote in September 2010: “The order of your client’s unfitness to possess an arm dated 2003-11-19 for a period of (05) five years has expired by effluxion of time.”
The national spokesperson of the ICD Moses Dlamini also had the same response.
“Mr Xakekile Stefaans Ruben was advised by correspondence, dated 30 September 2005, that his complaint falls outside the mandate of the ICD. He was further advised to seek assistance from a legal practitioner.”
The police are still investigating what happened to Reuben’s case. The Weekly was told that because this happened a long time ago the process of retrieving the file would take some time.
A spokesperson for the police, Captain Rulene Kuhn, said that police could declare a person unfit to carry a fire arm if it was discovered that the person used it in public thereby threatening the safety of those around him.
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