Firearm licence renewal chaos

Dear Editor

Defective national legislation has left tens of thousands South African firearm holders in limbo after repeated calls for the Firearms Control Act to be amended.

Following a response this week by Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, Dan Plato, it was revealed that thousands of persons in the Western Cape are unable to make use of their firearms.

I will request that the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service, which acts as the policy advisory to the Minster, appear before the Standing Committee on Community Safety in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament to explain what steps it is taking to solve the current crisis regarding the renewal of firearm’s licences in South Africa. This has resulted in the effective disarming of tens of thousands of South Africans, disabling the public from making legal use of their firearms. It is also vital that the public be urgently notified of any amendment to the act, as many residents of the Western Cape could well be in illegal possession of firearms.

According to the Firearm’s Control Act (Act 60 of 2000), all firearm licences would have expired on 30 June 2009. At the time, this information was not effectively communicated to the public, essentially resulting in some 1,3 million South African citizens becoming unknowingly criminalised due to ineffective communication on the part of the Ministry.

A later amendment to the act (Section 24) stipulated that South Africans wanting to renew a firearm licence must do so 90 days prior to the expiration date. A firearm holder who misses this deadline is now also required, as per section 28 of the amended act, to surrender their firearm over to the Registry for disposal after having their firearm licence revoked. In line with this legislation, and acting in respect of South African law, the Western Cape suspended firearm licence renewals as all late applicants missed the renewal deadline due to the Department’s failure to communicate the terms of its amended act to the public.

It must be noted that the Western Cape appears to be the only province to have abided by national law. Every other province continues to issue firearm licences, which is in direct violation of the Firearm’s Control Act. At last count, some 40 000 persons in the Western Cape were affected.

Furthermore, at a briefing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police in 2014, the South African Police Service acknowledged a number of difficulties with the licence renewal system, including a shortage of staff, a shortage of storage space, a large volume of paperwork which could not be filed and archived properly, and difficulty in processing applications within the 90 day timeframe.

As the DA in the Western Cape, we want this matter to receive urgent attention.

Regards

Mark Wiley, MPP