Gun Free SA says firearm licence fraud ‘widespread, entrenched and deadly’

Corruption in the national firearms control management system is systemic, widespread, deeply entrenched and deadly, Gun Free SA’s director Adèle Kirsten, has said.

The organisation is calling on the presidency to put mechanisms in place to conduct an independent forensic audit on “all firearm licences, permits and authorisations issued” by the Central Firearms Registry (CFR) over the last five years.

“This would investigate who was issued with which licence for what purpose. It must also include 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. The office of the Auditor-General would be best placed to undertake this audit and review,” said Kirsten.

She maintains that corruption in the national firearms control management system was not limited to an isolated incident such as Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear’s murder, but was widespread, entrenched and deadly.

Referring to the fatal shooting of Kinnear outside his home on 18 September, with reports linking his assassination to a nationwide firearms syndicate, Kirsten says there were numerous failed attempts to address the corruption and inefficiencies in the country’s firearms control management system.

“With more and more guns available across the country, gun violence has steadily increased. In 2018 guns replaced knives to become the leading cause of murder in SA, while in Gauteng firearms have replaced motor vehicles as the leading cause of non-natural death.”

Kirsten said a task team was appointed in 2010 to turn the CFR around. In 2013, the police ministry establishing a two-person committee of inquiry to probe allegations of fraud and corruption in the firearms control management system, only for the final report to not be made public.

“In 2014 SAPS [South African Police Service] presented another CFR turnaround strategy to Parliament, which was reviewed by the Police Portfolio Committee in 2015 and again in 2016, with numerous oversight visits by the MPs [Members of Parliament]; yet still no results.

“None of these interventions have been successful. Fraud and corruption continue to thrive, and people continue to die,” says Kirsten.

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