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Gun Owners South Africa welcomes court order which states that expired license can be renewed

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Gun Owners South Africa (GOSA) have welcomed the court order which ruled that expired licensoe can be renewed and that the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) refusal to process late applications for renewal was unlawful.

Earlier this year, the North Gauteng High Court granted an interdict filed by GOSA against the South African Police Service (SAPS) which prevented SAPS from confiscating more than 400 000 expired guns and protecting owners with expired guns from prosecution.
National chairman of Gun Owners South Africa Paul Oxley said expired licenses can be renewed. He also stated that SAPS refusal to process late applications for renewal is unlawful.

Oxley said SAPS disputed the right of their attorney and the standing exco and chairman to bring this action. The judge was not pleased with this, terming the challenge “artificial to put it mildly”, “except with a fertile imagination” and an abuse of the court’s time, said Oxley.

“The court did not rule that police should not accept late renewals. The court did however recognise the police’s application that stated that you can renew it with certain conditions, however the court dismissed arguments against it,” he said.
SAPS argued there was no urgency because GOSA waited until July 2018 to challenge a February 2016 directive. This was dismissed due to the SA Hunters (and others) cases similarly dealing with this from a (now failed) different point of view only being resolved in June 2018.

Oxley said SAPS has admitted providing an internal guideline literally days after the ruling to its members on how to proceed regarding the use and possession of dagga following the ground-breaking ruling by the Constitutional Court in September but has blatantly ignored doing so for expired firearms licenses.

Oxley said people should not fear renewing the gun licenses as they will not be prosecuted.

“Whatever your reason is for your license expiring or for wanting to have your firearm licensed, police should accept your application,” he said.


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7 comments

  1. The ruling doesn’t say if the firearm has to be left with the saps while the licence was being processed

    1. I had failed to renew my firearm licence on time.When I went to the police station they said I must listen to the radio announcement but keep my firearm in the safe till it s renewed.They said the new law states that unrenewed are not to be taken back to police station but Grace time to renew usually gets announced on radio.It has been 6 months now i havent heard any announcement.Please advice

  2. Hi i what kan we do because when we go thy say its over the dat we kant help you if thy refuse to help wat is the next step to do

  3. Hi, what is the status now on the renewal of expired gun licenses. I tried to renew mine about 2-3 years ago just after it expired and was turned away by SAPS, saying they cannot process it due to an ongoing court case on this issue. I went back a few weeks later to try again and they turned me away saying they dont even know which form to use and I should keep my gun in my safe until the court has made a ruling. On my third attempt last year, they again said they cannot help me and took down my contact details and instructed me to keep my old license and gun in safe and they will contact me. I to date have not heard anything back

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