House chairperson, while the ACDP has doubts about the police ability to administer an amnesty on illegal firearms, not legal, but illegal firearms safely and effectively, we nevertheless support in principle the proposed amnesty because we believe there are many illegal firearms out there that must be handed in. Some of the concerns we have as the ACDP, include the storage of such firearms when they are handed in as we know full well that many of our police stations are poorly maintained with little or no proper security. What do such police stations do if criminals attempt to rob them of the very illegal firearms that were handed in?
The ACDP calls on the SAPS to tighten their security around firearms that would be handed in to ensure that they do not lend in the hands of criminals again. For this to happen, senior police management must ensure that only qualified and reliable police officials are made
responsible to oversee the collection and safekeeping of illegal firearms that are handed in.
The ACDP will never support the handing in of legal firearms by owners whose licenses have expired due to no fault of their own. We say such legal owners must have their licenses because in most cases, they failed to renew their licenses as I said because of the mismanagement within the SAPS. Thank you. [Applause.]