Question NW2280 to the Minister of Police
10 October 2017 - NW2280
Mbatha, Mr MS to ask the Minister of Police
(a) What is the total number of firearms or weapons that the security industry is currently in possession of and (b) how many of those firearms or weapons are illegal?
Reply:
(a) The PSiRA and SAPS Central Firearm Registry previously embarked on an audit of the Firearm Registry’s database in respect of security businesses. This audit focused on the different categories or classes of security service providers where the use of firearms are more prevalent, such as the general guarding sector, assets in transit services, reaction services, close protection and the anti-poaching sector.
Whilst PSiRA plays a role in assisting with the control of firearms within the industry, the ultimate control responsibility lies with the office of the Central Firearms Register (CFR) of the South African Police Service (SAPS) who is responsible for not only considering firearm license applications, but also monitoring compliance in terms of the Firearms Control Act.
The scope of the audit primarily focused on identifying the security business from the 8 345 institutions licensed for firearms by the Central Firearms Register. From the audit conducted, PSiRA identified 3 340 security businesses licensed for firearms. Although the audit did have some limitations, it revealed that of the 122 788 firearms that were licensed to the 8 345 institutions, 101 612 (83 %) thereof were licensed to the private security industry.
Firearm control within the private security industry is high on the agenda of both PSiRA and SAPS. Following on from a Memorandum of Agreement signed between the two entities, a firearms sub-committee has been established to improve firearm control within the industry. The sub-committee is currently implementing the following:
- Database integration and access to both entities;
- Enhancing the institution database to include coding for all security businesses licensed for firearms in order to extract the details of these businesses more accurately and timeously;
- Sharing of information between the two entities and reporting any changes in relation to registration statuses, addresses, investigations, etc. of security businesses by either entities; and
- Joint inspections and operations.