2004 Volume 3

Community meeting addressed by Provincial Commander
of Firearm and Liquor Control
by Charl van Wyk and Thomas Eastes

The session 12 August 2004 held at Newlands Rugby Stadium was exactly the same road show the SAPS ran last year in Parow, Stellenbosch and around the Cape Peninsula.
Senior Superintendent Jacques van Lill, Provincial Commander of Firearm and Liquor Control, addressed the crowd of approximately 100.

On four occasions he made the statement that a lot can happen between now and the wave of re-licensing activities envisaged for the future. Exact words were "...who knows what will happen by then?"

He came across as approachable and invited people to come and see him to express their concerns and stated that, if necessary, he would try his best to help them.
Many questions relevant to re-licensing were submitted and very eloquently answered. It appears that things are going to be made up as they go along to action the re-licensing and new licensing of firearms.

When individuals in the audience pointed out the inconsistencies and incompetence of the SAPS in certain areas, he did, on occasion, agree publicly. Van Lill did, however, distance himself from the problems and made it clear again that his function, as the chief whip in the Western Cape in dealing with Firearms and Alcohol, is to exercise/uphold the law only.

He mentioned that we, the public, must speak to the authorities when we have problems. He spoke positively about using legal means to challenge what we thought was incorrect, as did the firearm bodies who went to the Pretoria High Court on 30 June for an urgent interdict to halt the implementation of the Firearms Control Act. One individual pointed out that this was no option, as he could not afford to sue the government. Your Editor pointed out that when questions are asked, no answers are forthcoming and that no Appeal Board exists to enable one to appeal decisions by the Central Firearms Register. Van Lill kindly offered to personally follow up on the issues of Firearm News.

Van Lill pointed out that in excess of 200 firearms a month are lost in the Western Cape. It must be pointed out that there are probably around 480 000 legal firearm owners in the Western Cape. On 31 December 2002 there were 5 386 006 registered firearms in South Africa. He also punted the "illegal firearms of today were legal yesterday" idea. This is obviously not true; the amount of weapons smuggled into South Africa during the "struggle" could have literally amounted to millions.

Thomas Eastes, of Victims Against Crime, expressed concern at the exorbitant costs, complexity and difficulty involved to licence and re-licence. He also raised the issue of SABS safes now and during re-licensing. He has been unable to find the SABS standards 953-1 and 953-2 to determine what is acceptable and what is not. Van Lill agreed that somehow this is unclear but did state the following...current safes are acceptable and will be inspected to determine existence and compliance with the fastening standards. Once this is established, they will issue a document/certificate to state that the safe complies with requirements under the old Act 75 of 69. Such document is to be pasted inside the safe for future reference. When the next 5-year re-licensing cycle comes, only then will they review the safe according to SABS standards.

The meeting was well run and most of the attendees probably left a little confused by all the details of the new law.