Request for gun amnesty off the table – Beukman

THE Department of Police’s request to Parliament to approve the firearm amnesty that was scheduled to take place between next month and February next year has been shelved again.

The request was withdrawn by the department in order to look at new dates amid legal litigation, including one by Gun Owners SA, in response to the Constitutional Court which ruled it an offence to possess a firearm without a licence.

It is the third time the request has been withdrawn following instances when former police ministers Fikile Mbalula and Nkosinathi Nhleko were at the helm of the department.

In July, Police Minister Bheki Cele wrote a letter to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete requesting the portfolio committee consider the approval of the six-month amnesty. Mbete referred the request to the police portfolio committee, which was to consider it after recess this month.

Yesterday, committee chairperson Francois Beukman told Independent Media that the firearm amnesty was off the table.

“It depends whether they want to proceed with it. It is the executive that applies to Parliament for approval,” Beukman said.

“They can’t proceed with the amnesty without Parliament agreeing to that so if there is a new date it will be tabled and referred to us,” he said.

Cele’s spokesperson Reneilwe Serero said she was unaware that the matter was no longer part of the committee’s programme.

Serero promised to check what led to the department withdrawing its request for the firearm amnesty, but could not be reached for a response at the time of going to the press.

In his draft notice for the amnesty, Cele said applications should be handed to a designated amnesty officer at any police station.

He also said concerned firearm and ammunition should be surrendered and the applicant issued with a receipt as proof.

Those wishing to apply for firearm licences should notify the designated amnesty officer in writing of their intention to do so.

“The application for a licence must be lodged within 14 days from the date on which the firearm was surrendered… ” reads the draft notice.

PICTURE: ELMOND JIYANE/GCIS Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, right, with Government Communications and Information System Acting Director-General, Phumla Williams, at the post-Cabinet media address at the Imbizo Media Centre in the CBD yesterday.