Johannesburg - Police have denied claims that the Central Firearms Registry (CFR) is fraught with corruption and that while foreigners are granted licences, black gun owners are not.
Abios Khoele, chairman of the Black Gun Owners Association, had said thousands of its members were denied gun licences, yet foreigners were granted permits to carry guns because they paid bribes.
Khoele had said that whenever its members applied for a licence, they were told the reasons they had submitted for wanting a firearm were not unique as previous applicants had given similar answers.
However, Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale said it was the first time the police had heard of the allegations.
He said the association must provide more information to allow the matter to be thoroughly investigated. “We will arrange a meeting with them to understand their grievances better,” Makgale said.
It is not the first time the CFR is accused of being handled in a corrupt way.
Last year, its former head, Brigadier Mathapelo Miriam Mangwani, was fired for corruption after an exposé in The Star revealed that she had allegedly accepted bribes to fast-track firearm licences.
At the time Makgale confirmed that Mangwani had been fired after undergoing a disciplinary process.
He had said two brigadiers, two colonels, a captain, two lieutenants, a warrant officer and 12 administrative employees were suspended after management discovered several irregularities, fraud and corruption within the CFR.
And now Khoele said that despite all the steps the police had taken to suspend people, the corruption affecting the registry was far from over.
He said the association had realised that for the past two years, its members’ applications were constantly being turned down.
“About 2 000 applications of our members have been rejected, yet foreign nationals are easily given the licences,” Khoele said.
“We do meet one another at shooting ranges and they tell us that they have a connection at the CFR,” he said.
The Star saw two letters rejecting an applicant from Alexandra.
Khoele said the 34-year-old applicant has a tuckshop and a taxi. He wanted a firearm licence for safety reasons.
His application was rejected, and although he appealed against the decision, nothing came of it.
Another application was that of a 24-year-old man from Dobsonville, Soweto, who wanted the gun for his personal safety because he leaves for work before dawn and returns late at night. He did not get the licence.
Makgale said most legal firearm owners were South African citizens and that the Firearms Control Act of 2000 allowed permits to be issued to foreigners under specific provisions and conditions.
“These permits are issued for a duration of one year only and are policed by verifying the criminal records of applications before issuing the permit and submitting their fingerprints to the Criminal Record Centre again after a year if they reapply for a permit,” Makgale said.
The Star