The Police Ministry is relentless in its drawn-out bid to have Fidelity Security Services’ 700 guns with expired licences surrendered for destruction.

A report in The Star notes it has brought an application to the Constitutional Court to have the matter settled.

This application is an appeal against a ruling of the SCA – delivered in April – that according to the Firearms Control Act, Fidelity was entitled to apply afresh for new licences of the guns in question.

Police Major-General Eleanor Groenewald said in papers filed at the apex court that licences of these firearms had ‘long expired and the renewal applications were made outside of the periods prescribed in the Firearms Control Act’.

Groenewald maintained that their application had prospects of success, particularly because the apex court previously ruled that failure by a firearm licence holder to apply for renewal of licences until expiry would result in the termination of the licence.

‘The SCA decision stands in direct conflict with this decision insofar as permits the licence holder to continue to be in possession of a firearm whose licence has expired instead of surrendering it to the state,’ she said.

Groenewald argued that the Act did not impose an obligation on the Minister of Police and designated officials to accept and process new applications for expired licences.

Groenewald said the matter also raised a point of law that the general public would find important, ‘namely clarifying what would happen to firearms whose licences have expired and which have not been renewed on time’.

‘The regulation of firearms by the government is an important matter that goes to the heart of the security of not only the country itself but also the citizens of the country.’

Full report in The Star