GF: Bearing in mind that the government has committed itself to seemingly unenforceable legislation with scant regard to outside opinion, what do you have to do to be taken seriously?

AK: Initially we had to focus on getting government’s and the peoples’ attention. Four increasingly popular marches last year have achieved that, I think. Our next promises to be, shall we say, 'interesting'. How seriously are we being taken? In a word, very. We frequently converse and correspond with Minister Nqakula and his senior personal advisors. But I still think that most of these people are of the opinion that they can treat us like they have the 'white lobby' over the last four years, with broken promises, mis-direction, plain old-fashioned bulldust and simple 'shut-out' techniques. They're finding out that they can't; our members won't stand for it. We have quite a simple strategy actually. Although we're prepared to negotiate and discuss matters there's a line in the ground that we simply won't let anyone cross. Once they come even close, we take to the streets in our thousands. Soon in tens of thousands. The Firearm Control Act has nothing to do with crime control; it’s purely designed to disarm the people. Law-abiding, taxpaying and most importantly, voting people.

GF: What is the feeling in the township, amongst people who fought for their rights, who are now told they may have to relinquish some of them?

AK: They feel very threatened. The threat is real. Try asking the Central Firearms Registry how many licences have been granted since July 1st last year. No one will tell you, no one will tell us. Over six hundred thousand legal gunowners will be probably be denied a licence by the end of this year.

GF: Do you think you can change this?

AK: On my own, with no staff or any real organisation or meaningful finances, as simply a legal gunowner with a message, I've placed up to five thousand people at government’s door within months. Given the two aforementioned resources I will get tens of thousands in the streets.

GF: All protest marches have to be authorised by the state. Would you resort to civil disobedience if permission was denied?

AK: Everyone has the right to peaceful public assembly; the constitution assures that democratic right. Once that right is denied then the public must realise that there is no real democracy, we will have descended back into an Apartheid era. As long as government stands by its promise to serve the people of this country, then it must listen to the masses, the electorate, the people. All we ask is that they let our voice be heard. BGOASA is not just the voice of the gun owner; it's the voice of the people, the voice of the masses. As ‘representivity’ is apparently the phrase of this era, let there be a national referendum.

GF: Are whites welcome in BGOSA, and do you have white support?

AK: Anybody’s welcome. We think white support is probably massive but the truth is, apart from perhaps less than a hundred actually joining, so far we don't really know. We don't expect to see thousands of whites joining in the streets, toyi-toying with us but then you never know these days, do you? We suspect - from indications on the *SAFF* (New Link to be approved by BAB. Gunsite, GOSA or SALGO). -that white support is increasing substantially every day. Of course the marches are obviously attracting more attention from firearm owners and supporters right across the board thanks to media coverage, but BGOASA is still apparently perceived as a solely black organisation by most. It really isn't. We'd like to think that we represent the opinion of the vast majority of all firearm owners. We feel that the most effective way to illustrate to government what we, the "black" gun owners think of the new firearm law is to ask those in power to simply look out of their ivory tower windows and count us. That's the African way, and it's also the democratic way. We want to make the point that the Firearm Control Act is entirely unworkable in its current form, as it's based on myths, lies and total falsehoods peddled by the anti-gun lobby.

GF: Do you have a problem with SAGA (the largely white South African Gunowners Association), who some observers have described as "limp-wristed"?

AK: We'd never describe SAGA's efforts as limp-wristed. They've fought a long and very hard struggle for many years. Who else could have forced government to make over two hundred amendments to the original Firearm Control Act? Who else could have spent hundreds of thousands of rands attending parliament, briefing sessions, consultative meetings and so on? That's not limp-wristed, that's doing the best you can with the money you have, like we are now. Although we may have differences of opinion on strategy, we absolutely respect SAGA's commitment to the cause. We can only hope to revive the spirit of SAGA's original principles. We salute them.

Gavin Foster - Farmers Weekly - 4 February 2004