Wednesday 7 February 2018 is primed to be a significant day for South African gun owners. It is the day on which the Constitutional Court will decide on the matter of expired firearm licences, and what the way forward is supposed to be. Currently there are over 200 000 South African firearm owners with expired licence cards. A significant amount by any measure.
The principle parties in the fight are the Minister of Police and the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association (SAH). Fidelity and Gun-Free South Africa (GFSA) have both entered submissions to become amicus curiea.
After weeks of deliberation with very senior counsel, Gun Owners SA (GOSA) has decided to enter the fray. The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was the content of GFSA’s submission. A veritable swathe of unsubstantiated and untrue claims and accusations are made, and if they are not effectively addressed and countered the court may be obliged to accept these claims as true and correct.
It requires no explanation why this would be a very bad thing for South African firearm owners.
The second part of the struggle is that the undesirable and unnecessary nature of the continuous renewal regime is not focused upon by the engaged parties as things stand. The opportunity thus presents itself for GOSA to explain to the court why this wasteful and resource-intensive practice should be entirely done away with.
Therefore the GOSA ConCourt effort is two-pronged:
- We want GFSA to be declared agents of foreign interests acting against South Africa’s sovereign national interests, and
- We would like the Constitutional Justices to rule that the entire scheme of relicensing is irrational and contra to the objects of the FCA, and thus unconstitutional.
GOSA is represented by experienced and highly competent senior counsel, who is acting in conjunction with our legal team (the FDD).
The entire effort is going to cost GOSA approximately R350 000.
I would therefore like to appeal to all legal firearm owners to please contribute where and what they can to cover these costs.
Gun Owners SA explains how this can be done on their website. There is also a funding barometer that assists in keeping track of the progress. Many people have already put their money where their mouths are, which is heartening to see.
We are currently engaged in the most important struggle to safeguard our firearm rights in the history of this country.
Please help us over the next few days to reach that target. It is for all our sakes.
We cannot let the side down at this critical moment.
Molon Labe.
Written by Gideon Joubert
Gideon is owner and editor of Paratus
The GOSA banking details are as follows:
“Donations”
Gun Owners SA
Nedbank Stellenbosch
ACB Code 107110, some banking platforms may require 198765
Account No 2008673626
Note that some banking platforms may require you to list the account as “Savings”
Please send a mail confirming deposits to donations@gunownerssa.org
You can also PayPal us…
Go to https://paypal.me/gunownerssa
