{"id":866297,"date":"2026-07-18T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=866297"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:14:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:14:26","slug":"a-growing-threat-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/866297\/a-growing-threat-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"A growing threat in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many gun owners in South Africa are choosing not to renew their licenses, which poses a risk to public safety as the firearms are now being used illegally, according to Gun Free South Africa (GFSA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GFSA has warned that South Africa\u2019s relicensing system is collapsing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applications have dropped 74% since 2021 and 2022, which means that a growing number of gun owners have stopped renewing their licenses and are in possession of illegally owned firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gun Free SA Consultant Claire Taylor told Talk Radio 702 and CapeTalk in an interview<\/a> that the collapse follows a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling stating that even if a license expires, the owner can still own the gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe court didn\u2019t say that you no longer need to have a license but that\u2019s been the interpretation by many gun owners and it hasn\u2019t been rectified by the government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that gun re-licensing has four purposes, including to ensure that the gun owner is \u201cfit and proper, that they are competent and that they still have a genuine need for the gun and that they still have their gun in their possession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, the government directed a nationwide response to relicensing uncertainty. Taylor said that the response to this was immediate, and what followed was a 160% increase in relicensing applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to all the confusion, gun owners in South Africa do not think that they need to have a valid licence. Taylor attributes much of this confusion to the government, which has not clarified the laws on relicensing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe result is a growing pool of gun owners who are now in illegal possession,\u201d said Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She warned that the implications of being in illegal possession of a firearm in South Africa, could mean a prison sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gun Free SA urges government to amend Firearms Control Act<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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However, due to the large number predicted of people illegally possessing firearms in the country, Gun Free SA is urging the government not to penalise the gun owners with expired licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are calling on the government to clarify what gun owners with expired licences need to do and to do that across the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation is also urging the government to develop a strategy to bring those gun owners who are outside the legal system back into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe urgently need to amend the Firearms Control Act so that gun owners know what they need to do to comply with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court of Appeal has recognised the risk of these unlawfully held firearms, noting that they have an increased risk of being lost or stolen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn South Africa, the biggest source of illegal guns is licensed gun owners , that\u2019s civilians and the state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gun owners report the loss or theft, on average, of 22 guns every day in South Africa, and Taylor explained that when those gun owners are outside of the system that increases the risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court also noted that illegally owned guns are at an increased risk of being used against the gun owner himself, as well as family members and others in his vicinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do need to focus on the recovery of guns that are already circulating in communities, trace them to the source to understand how they leaked into the illegal pool and destroy them,\u201d said Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we also need to close the taps that are leaking licensed guns into that illegal pool, and part of that involves bringing these gun owners who are in an unlawful position back into the fold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor explained that old gun licenses issued under the Arms and Ammunition Act have prevented those gun owners from complying with the Firearms Control Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This situation has resulted in a significant number of gun owners who are licensed but still fall under the regulations of the old law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many gun owners in South Africa are choosing not to renew their licenses, which means they are illegally possessing a firearm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":866356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2078434868535435368","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24147,25828],"class_list":["post-866297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-firearms-control-act","tag-gun-free-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866297"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":866363,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866297\/revisions\/866363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}