Dear Editor
If reports on the latest version of the Firearms Control Amendment Bill (2025) are accurate, then this Bill represents one of the most dangerous assaults yet on South Africans’ right to safety and self-defence. It hands the Minister of Police the power to decide arbitrarily who may live safely and who may not, by controlling who may be lawfully armed. That is unconstitutional, reckless, and incompatible with any democratic system that respects the rule of law.
What makes this proposal indefensible is that government’s own research warned against every one of its core provisions. The 2015 Civilian Secretariat for Police Service and Wits School of Governance Firearms Review made it clear that the problem lies not with law-abiding citizens, but with the South African Police Service itself its corruption, mismanagement, and the total collapse of the Central Firearms Register (CFR).
That report described the CFR as “technically collapsed, institutionally incoherent, and incapable of maintaining accurate records.” It warned that more bureaucracy before fixing SAPS capacity would “destabilise the entire regulatory regime.” It concluded that violent crime trends correlate not with gun ownership, but with effective, intelligence-led policing something this government has consistently failed to deliver.
The latest evidence of that failure is the Prinsloo gun scandal, exposed again this week. According to The Cape Argus (11 November 2025), the Hawks still cannot confirm how many of the over 2,000 state-issued firearms stolen and sold to gangsters by former SAPS Colonel Christiaan Prinsloo have been recovered. These police guns stolen from state armouries were linked to over 1,000 murders and 1,400 attempted murders in the Western Cape between 2010 and 2016.
This is not a gun control problem it is a government control problem.
It exposes systemic, historic failures in firearm management that have cost thousands of lives. Yet instead of fixing the broken systems that allow police guns to flood gang markets, the ANC wants to disarm the very citizens who obey the law and need protection the most.
The 2025 Draft Bill ignores every expert recommendation:
- It expands ministerial discretion and increases red tape.
- It strips lawful self-defence of legitimacy by requiring “exceptional circumstances.”
- It limits ammunition to 100 rounds per firearm.
- It criminalises collectors and undermines dedicated sport shooters and hunters the backbone of South Africa’s responsible firearm culture.
Disarming law-abiding South Africans will not stop violent crime. It will only make our communities more vulnerable while leaving the real culprits corrupt officials and criminal syndicates untouched. The state fails every single day to protect its citizens from violent crime, and any attempt to disarm law-abiding South Africans is, in fact, taking away their lifeline in the wake of the crime epidemic that continues to plague our country.
This is why a petition against this Bill will attract broad public support. South Africans know that when government fails to keep them safe, they must have the right to protect themselves and their families within the law.
The Democratic Alliance will therefore not only oppose this Bill in Parliament, but will also lead a nationwide campaign of public mobilisation to stop it. And if necessary, we will challenge it in court. We will defend every responsible citizen’s right to lawful protection.
The government’s own research and the blood-stained evidence of its failures prove one truth: South Africa does not need fewer licensed firearms; it needs fewer corrupt officials and better policing.
Regards
Ian Cameron MP
DA Deputy Spokesperson on Police