POLOKWANE – Judge Ronel Tolmay ruled in favour of the SA Hunters’ Association, that all firearm licences issued in terms of the Firearms Control Act which were due to be renewed in terms of the Act, would be deemed to be valid until the Constitutional Court had ruled on the constitutionality of the sections.
This essentially means three things:
- If your arms license has expired, you cannot be prosecuted.
- If your license has expired and you have already been charged, you can request that the prosecution be terminated against you.
Citizen reports that in 2009, the association obtained an urgent interim interdict declaring all licences issued in terms of the old Act to remain valid, pending an application to have certain provisions of Schedule 1 of the Act declared unconstitutional.
This was to prevent criminalisation of firearm owners who did not apply for the renewal of their licences in time.
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Negotiations which followed led to the publication of a Draft Firearm Control Amendment Bill in 2015, which would have addressed the Association’s concerns about the Act, but the bill was never introduced in parliament.
Section 24 of the Act provides that firearm license holders must apply for renewals at least 90 days before the expiry date, but the association argued that it was almost impossible to meet the requirements of legality once one failed to comply with the 90-day limit.
Section 28 of the Act states that if a firearm license has been cancelled, the firearm must be disposed of or forfeited to the state with a 60 day time frame placed on the firearm’s disposal.
Judge Tolmay said it was clear that there was no proper procedure to effect surrender of a firearm where a licence came to an end by the passing of time, nor was there any regime created under which one could surrender it for value, which impacted on the property rights of firearms owners and violated the constitutional protection of property rights.
