News

Gun owners to take their case to court

December 04, 2005 Edition 1

Christelle Terreblanche

A constitutional court case is looming over the state's inability to process all firearm licence renewals ahead of the month-end deadline, which will criminalise up to 400 000 gun owners.

The pending case follows remarks by Phuti Setati, the South African Police Service spokesperson, that those who failed to renew their licences by December 31 would be prosecuted, which could spell jail sentences of up to 12 months for thousands of law-abiding citizens.

The deadline was set for the first group of firearm owners - those born between January 1 and March 31 - to renew their licences in accordance with the new act, but owners' associations and opposition parties have warned repeatedly that the police do not have the capacity or training to ensure that all renewals are issued in time.

In answer to a question in parliament, Charles Nqakula, the safety and security minister, stressed that "action would be taken against individuals who neglect or refuse to renew their firearm licences, permits or authorisations.

"The SAPS will investigate each case, based on its own merits, and criminal charges will be laid against those in violation of the law," he said, while giving assurances that all possible police infrastructure was being used to ensure that people would be able to renew their licences.

But gun-owner organisations say most gun owners, particularly those in rural areas, and pensioners, have been unable to comply.

Martin Hood, the South African Gun Owners' Association spokesperson and legal adviser, said the case would be based on inconsistencies between the new Firearms Control Act (FCA) and regulations issued by the government.

"The act said that all licences were valid for five years, which means those existing when the act came in force should really expire only in 2008," said Hood.

"This is inconsistent with the minister's regulations, which stipulates that the renewal process had to start this year.

"The regulations can never override the act and cannot say gun owners are committing a criminal offence if they fail to renew their licences through no fault of their own."

He said the constitutional challenge would fall away should Nqakula issue a postponement.

He claimed that only 10 percent of the estimated 600 000 guns had been re-licensed, and he estimated that at least 150 000 people would not be able to comply in time.

Last month Nqakula acknowledged that the act had "many loopholes" and said it might be reviewed to close those, mainly those pertaining to collectors of military-style weapons.

Shortly after that, the Democratic Alliance said it presented a report to Nqakula detailing other concerns about the implementation of the act.

"Gun owners should not be criminalised because of the government's failure to implement the FCA," Roy Jankielsohn, a DA MP, said.

"Hundreds of thousands of firearm owners have yet to renew their licences. Only a fraction of firearm owners have applied for renewal.

In the meantime, Jankielsohn has handed a detailed memo to the minister about the more than 10 problems encountered by those trying to comply, including lack of access to police stations, shortage of money, too few accredited training providers, a bottleneck with appeals to refusals and a lack of police training.

"A credible alternative to the current chaos could be an extensive audit of all current firearms, licences and owners," he told the minister. "This would be the most logical step in the first five years, instead of a costly mass renewal process.

"The premise is that the individual has been issued with a legitimate licence to own a firearm by the state and that as long as he or she is a responsible firearm owner, the state should protect this property. Furthermore steps should be taken to make the renewal process more affordable and user-friendly for individuals such as pensioners."

This week Jankielsohn said he had still had no reply from Nqakula. Asked for comment, the minister's spokesperson, Trevor Bloem, insisted that the document had reached the ministry by mail only this week.

"There is no response from the minister as the document will have to go through various processes and has been referred to the police," Bloem said. "Once attended to, the reply will come to the minister for his approval and comments. At this stage it is premature to say what his response will be."

Hood said thousands of complaints from renewal applicants were streaming into the association daily, with many underpinned by incorrect decisions and responses by the police.

"The most common basic complaint is that the police don't have a standardised procedure. Second, that there is corruption in the system itself and third, there is bad training," Hood said.

About 13 cases about bad police decisions and appeal-board failures were pending in the Pretoria high court in addition to the threatened constitutional challenge.

"We have also made presentations to the minister and told him in no uncertain terms that the current process was not going to work and we believe he was considering radical amendments based on what we told him, but he has not made a decision on whether to postpone it," said Hood.

"Notwithstanding our concerns that this has big potential to turn into a confrontation between gun owners and government, we still want to talk to the minister in a constructive manner and tell him the act won't work without our co-operation."

• News
• Local
• South Africa
• Africa
• World
• Opinion
• Lifestyle
• Entertainment
• Sport