On 14 and 15 May the Portfolio Committee on Police is conducting an oversight visit in Gauteng, where members will visit the Central Firearms Registry (CFR) in Pretoria. Briefing 2 has been developed in preparation for this oversight visit to highlight that problems in the functioning of the CFR identified in 2010 have still not been dealt with eleven years later as SAPS has continued to kick the non-functional CFR can down the road. In particular four fundamental problems identified in 2010 by a Task Team led by the Civilian Secretariat for Police remain serious problems in the control of firearms in South Africa: Licence processing backlog Renewals confusion Database invalidity Corruption and irregularities Eleven years on it is time to take decisive action. GFSA calls for:
1. A systematic review of the entire firearms control system to identify both operational and policy gaps to stop rampant and deadly corruption spanning over a decade.
2. An assessment of existing cost effective firearms control tracking systems in use in other countries, particularly in Africa, that could be customised to align with South Africa’s legislation and context. ArmsTracker is one such solution.
3. Appointing the Auditor-General’s office to undertake the systematic review and assessment process.
4. Acting to set aside the 2009 interim court order under which more than a million gun owners with ‘green’ ID book gun licences have not yet re-applied for licences under the Firearms Control Act (2000).
