Chaos at police firearms registry

[Capt. Oblivious]

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-cour...3#.Va-NCPnzGfl

Johannesburg - Power surges, database problems, thousands of applications and poor tracking of homeland guns - these are some of the problems facing the police who run the Central Firearms Registry.
The problems are noted in a report by the portfolio committee on police following MPs’ oversight visits late last year.
The report was tabled in Parliament last week.
The committee found a “major problem” with insufficient staff, as the SAPS uses the same officers to deal with firearms, liquor and second-hand goods matters, and sometimes gives them other work too he registry had a power surge “which damaged all the computers” and resulted in technological challenges, the report said. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research is helping the police to sort this out. In North West and the Northern Cape, the firearms officers didn’t have enough cars to carry out inspections.
The Gauteng South officers pointed out that the registry system takes multiple applications for the same firearm.
In Gauteng North, the area the office is in is unsafe and the officers don’t have enough vehicles. In Gauteng North, there were reports that some people own more than 120 firearms.
“Others owned 10 semi-automatic weapons and their view was there should be limitations placed on the ownership of such weapons,” the report added.
“There are cases where people legitimately disposed of firearms in 1991, but the system continues to show that they still own them. The SAPS are also unable to locate people who bought firearms,” the report stated.
The Eastern Cape receives more than 10 000 firearm applications every month, which caused major problems.
“There are many firearms that are not registered on the system. Dealers have firearms that are not registered on the system. The SAPS don’t have a track record of these firearms,” the report said of the Eastern Cape region.
Tracking of the weapons from the former homelands was still a problem.
“The committee noted that the firearms of the former Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (TBVC) are also not on the database which was a concern.
“The state of affairs is unacceptable as the country requires a corruption-free database. There is an immediate need to set timelines for the integration of the databases and upgrading of technology,” according to the report.
The SAPS told the committee that “the former TBVC states’ defence force and police force firearms have been accounted for and had been recorded”
.
The committee heard that the contract which was supposed to dot peen firearms (a system of marking firearms with metal pin marks) “did not deliver”.
The Firearms Appeal Board (FAB) told the committee that many of the SAPS refusals of firearm licences ended up as appeals to the board, but should not have ended up in court.
“According to the FAB, there appears to be a lack of knowledge of the rules governing the refusal of licences,” the report said. When police couldn’t back up their refusal with paperwork, the FAB “usually took a decision in favour of the applicant”.
The committee also heard that up to 39 000 police officers don’t have firearms.
The SAPS told the committee this was permitted in terms of the law.
The SAPS also told the committee that there were no backlogs in the system.
The committee asked the SAPS for a revised action plan, recommended that all vacancies at the registry be filled as soon as possible, and that “a clean and comprehensive database of all firearms is required, even if it means a legislative review”.

[Meteor]

How come it took so long to realise that the system is flawed ? There are people working there that must have said the system is not running 100%. Who then is the ass that says "no it's fine" ?

[ou bobbejaan]

That hurt my eyes.

[AshleyR]

That article had already been debunked as being rubbish in another thread.

Ahhh... as someone who has been in Parliament and listened to the actual reports being presented, and who has a (perhaps) better than average grasp of what is going on at present...

That entire article is the worst mish-mash and distorted version of a bunch of seperate reports and factoids that I have ever seen. The reporter who doodled that garbage out in wax crayon on the walls of the Kindergarten should be fired.

Thanks Paul.
I wasn't at the presentation by SAPS so I can only go on what I have read in the newspaper.
Perhaps you can tell us what is going on and what was actually said to the Committee regarding 'backlogs' so as to avoid any further misunderstandings/misinformation; and to ease my blood pressure...

That entire incident played out as follows...

On the 25th of March Deputy Minister Angie Sotyu delivered her briefing on the results of her visit to CFR and roundly castigated the working conditions, the state of repair of the buildings, etc. She was open about the massive backlogs.

At about the same time a certain Colonel from CFR declared in court (on behalf of the Registrar) that there were no backlogs.

Martin Hood brought this entire mess (that the Colonel had lied to court and directly contradicted the Deputy Minister of Police) out during our second visit to Parliament last month to the Portfolio Committee AND the Deputy Minister in person.

The Deputy National Commissioner of Police was hugely embarrassed.

This incident and a bunch of other facts seem to have been thrown together to creatre the article.

[Jakkals]

OK, everything at the CFR is fine then. How come my competency renewal has been stuck at the CFR since the 3rd of June then?

[wave.jaco]

OK, everything at the CFR is fine then. How come my competency renewal has been stuck at the CFR since the 3rd of June then?

Good question. One of my additional competencies have been stuck there for much longer than that.

[GK21]

OK, everything at the CFR is fine then. How come my competency renewal has been stuck at the CFR since the 3rd of June then?

Nobody said everything at CFR is fine. But at least there is a committee of people trying to assist the SAP to sort the mess out. I waited since November 2104 for my semi-auto shotgun approval. I heard today that it was approved. There appears at least to be some progress.

[Jakkals]

OK, understand. But somehow a bit of planning from the CFRs side could have prevented this. They must have known that all those conversions during the amnesty period of 2009 to convert the old to new licences WILL come back to bite them when the 5 year period comes around again, which is now. Could they not have organised a staggered renewal for this initial renewal just to spread the load a bit?

[GK21]

OK, understand. But somehow a bit of planning from the CFRs side could have prevented this. They must have known that all those conversions during the amnesty period of 2009 to convert the old to new licences WILL come back to bite them when the 5 year period comes around again, which is now. Could they not have organised a staggered renewal for this initial renewal just to spread the load a bit?

Organisation requires aforethought, analysis and planning....at CFR? Ye sure!

[GK21]

PS that's why they need private citizens to come up with a plan to sort their mess out....they are incapable of doing it.