South African FA Hope to Build Senzo Meyiwa Statue from Melted Illegal Guns

A gun-control campaign has been launched in South Africa to make a bit of good out of the tragic murder of South African goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa. 

The South African Football Association are seeking out illegal weapons with the intention to melt them into metal that will eventually be made into a statue of Meyiwa. 

Meyiwa's family, along with Reeva Steenkamp's family, have both written letters of support for the campaign. Steenkamp was killed in 2013 by boyfriend Oscar Pistorius. 

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South African Football President Danny Jordaan weighed in on the issue, per Reuters (h/t Eurosport). 

We need to mop up all illegal guns and destroy them. This campaign aims to save lives so we are appealing to society to hand in all illegal guns.

We want to create a statue of Senzo from the guns as a reminder of the tragedy that these weapons have wrought on the youth of our country. There are laws on the books to deal with the issue, but they are not strictly enforced.  

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Last week, there were calls for greater gun laws in the aftermath of a joint memorial for Meyiwa, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Phindile Mwelase. 

All three athletes died in a three-day span. 

"Senzo's death must consolidate our resolve as a nation to clean our streets of criminals," sports minister Fikile Mbalula told The Guardian. 

Meyiwa's former room-mate with the national team, Sibusiso Vilakazi, confirmed that his parents were also held up by robbers while he was asleep in a nearby cottage. The robbers specifically asked for Vilakazi, according to The Guardian. 

No one was hurt in the incident, although the robbers still made off with clothes, jewelry and electronics. 

There were over 17,000 murders in South Africa last year. 

[Eurosport]