Central Firearms Registry probed

Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the Freedom Front Plus, says the chaotic and disorderly state of the police’s Central Firearms Registry demonstrates why applications for firearm licences and competency certificates have ‘basically ground to a halt’.

Groenewald and other MPs who serve on the Portfolio Committee on Police conducted an oversite visit to the registry on Saturday.

“The application forms for firearm licences and certificates are not properly filed; they are piled up in heaps spread over offices, among personnel and even in corridors,” says Groenewald.

From the photos and video published by Groenewald on Facebook and Twitter, it appears that there is not enough space to properly house the immense volume of forms, nor does a functional filing system appear to be in place.

Visit to CFR (Central Firearms Registry) today. This is the filing system. The changes to get hold of your application on an inquiry is poor. Offices and corridors are the filing cabinets pic.twitter.com/kQw9kDVt8Y

— Pieter Groenewald (@GroenewaldPJ) May 15, 2021

According to Groenewald, personnel at the registry admitted that as a result of this, they will not be able to satisfactorily attend to queries about documentation; it would be a tedious, if not impossible, task to locate the forms in question.

“The problem is exacerbated by the facility. It is unsafe and inadequate. There is a lack of proper maintenance and there seems to be a structural problem with the building, as the walls are cracking, which poses a serious safety risk. Truth be told, the building should be evacuated,” says Groenewald.

When the new firearms legislation was implemented, Groenewald says he warned that the legislation would place a heavy administrative burden on the police service.

“The police [service] itself has admitted that some of the applications are more than two years late,” says Groenewald.

According to Groenewald, the current legislation must be amended. “At present, there is too much administrative red tape related to firearm licensing. Firearms should be licensed only once; there is no need to renew the said licence every five years. The same applies to competency certificates,” he says.

Groenewald says he supports the idea of the implementation of a proper electronic system, much like the one used by the South African Revenue Service, to facilitate fast and efficient processing and to enable personnel to continue working, even from home.

“At the moment, management is poor and a lack of personnel only exacerbates the problem,” Groenewald told journalist Izak du Plessis.

Watch a video of the interview: