“I’ve been trying to renew my firearm licence without success. The office is closed, or they tell me the officials are not there and after it expired the lady said it's not their problem. I need my licence to work because I’m in security. What must I do?” Scorpion Legal Protection explains the problem with expired firearm licences in South Africa and what the law says.

One of the questions Scorpion has gotten is about what to do if your firearm licence has expired, since under the different lockdown levels not all government offices and designated police stations were operating. This is a complicated situation, especially since the recent court case of Fidelity Security Services (PTY) LTD v Minister of Police and Others.

First, it’s important to know it is your responsibility to renew your firearm licence at least 90 days before it expires. When you apply for renewal of the licence, you can give reasons for why you failed to submit your application earlier, but this does not guarantee that your application will be approved as it is still up to the registrar to make a decision on your application. According to the law, once your licence has expired, you are in illegal possession of a firearm. The law says that if you find yourself in a position where you have an expired firearm licence, you cannot dispose of this firearm by giving it to the previous license holder, to a dealer or to a third party. The relevant SAPS directive still states that such firearms must be surrendered to the nearest police station for destruction. This has naturally caused a lot of concern among firearm owners with expired licences.

Amnesty

According to the SAPS’ current policy, only amnesty allows those with expired firearm licences to apply for a new firearm licence for the firearm that is illegally in their possession (because an expired licence means you are in illegal possession). A condition of the amnesty was that you had to surrender your firearm to the nearest police station while you wait for the outcome of your application. However, the last amnesty period ended on 31 January 2021, and there is no amnesty currently available. Various organisations, like hunting organisations, have requested an extension of the amnesty but, to date, the Minister of Police has made no decisions.

The Fidelity Case – April 2021

Fidelity Security Services had various firearms with expired licences, a mistake that happened because the person who normally handled the renewal of firearm licences at Fidelity resigned. They approached the High Court for an order so that they could apply for new licences. Their application was turned down but they appealed the decision and the Supreme Court of Appeal held that there was nothing in the Firearms Control Act or in the Regulations to suggest that someone whose licence expired was forever prevented from applying for a new licence. The Court ordered that Fidelity Security Services was entitled to apply for new licences to possess the firearms, and that these applications must be accepted by the designated officers.

Where does that leave regular citizens who have expired firearm licences? The court was not clear. It was not asked to make a ruling on what should happen to firearms where the licence expired, and did not give any directives. In order to allow owners of expired firearm licences to reapply for a licence for the same firearm, the police will have to change their software program to allow this. This has been requested, but the Minister of Police has yet to address the issue or make a statement regarding what must happen. This is the position as we stand: if the license has expired, you are in possession of the firearm in contravention of the Act. It is unclear however, whether, the amnesty will be extended again to allow for licenses that expired as a result of the systems errors and also the effects of Covid-19.

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* This is only basic paralegal advice and cannot be relied on solely. The information is correct at the time of being sent to publishing.