Turning personal loss into a fight against gun violence
· Citizen
Gun-related violence is something close to the heart of Stanley Maphosa. His nephew was one of those killed in the Diepkloof tavern shooting in Soweto in 2020.
“I therefore understand gun violence both professionally and personally,” says Maphosa, who believes he has a chance to change things as CEO of Gun Free South Africa (GFSA).
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“A shooting does not end when the gunfire stops. Its consequences continue through families and communities for years.
“That experience gives me a personal connection to this work,” he adds. The work of the organisation is something the part-time pastor can identify with.
“It is grounded in evidence and in the experiences of communities across South Africa.”
He joined GFSA in January last year and took up the job because gun violence intersects with much of what he has worked on throughout his career.
“South Africa cannot accept preventable shootings as an ordinary part of life.
“I wanted to bring my experience to an organisation that has spent more than three decades working to prevent gun violence and save lives.”
Challenge of preventing gun violence
He says gun violence is a public safety issue with consequences for public health, youth development, gender-based violence and femicide, and community well-being.
Maphosa realises there is a gap between outrage and action when it comes to acting on firearms. Almost everyone agrees SA has too much gun violence, but there is far less appetite for the difficult measures required to prevent it, he says.
“We cannot adequately address violence while overlooking the weapon that can turn domestic abuse, interpersonal conflict, organised crime or community violence into a fatal incident within seconds.
“Prevention requires effective licensing and renewals, safe storage, tracing, recovery of illegal firearms, prevention of loss, theft, corruption and diversion, and accountability when systems fail. Funding is another challenge, says Maphosa.
“I describe gun violence as a wicked problem because it cuts across organised crime, extortion, taxi violence, political killings, kidnapping, trafficking and everyday interpersonal conflict.
“The role of firearms in turning social conflicts and misunderstandings into fatal encounters cannot be underestimated.”
Life across three countries
His life is entwined with three African countries, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with family roots across the subcontinent.
Maphosa was born in Pimville, Soweto, to a South African mother from KwaZulu-Natal and a Zimbabwean father who had come to SA as a young man in the 1950s seeking opportunities.
His parents met in Johannesburg. His mother was a domestic worker and his father was in the hospitality sector. “In many ways, theirs is a story shared by many families in our region,” says Maphosa.
Exile, education, and a career in development
He grew up in Zimbabwe, where he started school, went into exile in Zambia in the late 1970s as part of the Zapu liberation movement, later becoming a political commissar for the movement while still at school.
After Zimbabwe’s independence, he did his teaching diploma and worked as a primary and high school teacher, later completing a master’s degree in development studies at the University of South Africa and a PhD in social sciences at Fort Hare University.
He also studied humanitarian assistance and project management at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town.
“In 2005, after studying and beginning my career in Zimbabwe, I returned to South Africa and took up my South African citizenship by descent.”
His life journey, he says, “has profoundly influenced how I understand identity, migration, opportunity, social justice, development and belonging.”
Humanitarian work
Because his father was a pastor and political activist, “he grew up watching someone constantly trying to create opportunities rather than waiting for them”.
Humanitarian works has been a strong thread in his career. He spent decades working for World Vision International, involved in development programming, monitoring and evaluation, humanitarian response and regional work in southern Africa.
Maphosa has also served as chief programmes officer and interim CEO at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
Before joining GFSA, he had a short stint as a lecturer at the University of Zululand, became a senior research fellow at the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation and then joined the Academy of Science of South Africa, working in science diplomacy and scientific cooperation across Africa.
He has also followed his father’s footsteps in the church as a pastor and in church leadership from the age of 22.
“I am more than a churchgoer; I am a Christian and faith is central to my life,” says Maphosa.
Maphosa is married and a father, but he was reluctant to divulge more information about his family.
In his leisure time he enjoys reading, writing, spending time with family, faith and community activities, and engaging with people from all backgrounds.