Firearms for a security business

Who may hold a business licence

Section 20(2) lets the Registrar issue a firearm licence for business purposes to a security service provider, a person accredited to provide firearms training, a person accredited to supply firearms for theatrical, film or television productions, an accredited game rancher, a person accredited to conduct a hunting business, and anyone else accredited to use firearms for a business purpose the Registrar determines. The 2003 amendment replaced “security company” with “security service provider”, which ties the firearm licence directly to PSiRA: if you are not registered with PSiRA you are not a security service provider, and this section does not reach you.

The licence itself must specify the business purpose it was issued for, and section 20(4) says the firearm may only be used as specified in the licence. A firearm licensed to your guarding operation is not available for a director's weekend at the range.

Any firearm other than a prohibited firearm can be licensed this way. Prohibited firearms are only licensed under section 20 for theatrical, film and television use, and then only with the Registrar's prior written approval.

Who may actually carry the firearm

Section 20(5)(b) is the rule that ties the two regulators together, and it is worth quoting in substance: a security service provider holding a business firearm licence may only provide that firearm to a security officer in its service who holds a competency certificate.

Read that carefully, because it contains three separate tests. The person must be a security officer. They must be in your service. And they must personally hold a competency certificate issued under the Firearms Control Act.

Competency is not the same thing as a PSiRA grade. A Grade C officer with years of service and no competency certificate may not be handed a company firearm, and no amount of in-house training substitutes for it. Competency runs for the same period as the licence it relates to under section 10(2) as amended in 2006, so it expires with that licence rather than on its own five year clock, and an officer who was properly competent when you hired them may not be now.

The register, storage and transport

Section 20(6) puts two standing obligations on every business licence holder. You must keep a register of all firearms in your possession containing the prescribed information, and you must store and transport those firearms as prescribed.

Section 20(7) then makes the register useful to somebody other than you: at the request of a police official, the holder of a licence must produce for inspection any firearm and ammunition in its possession or under its control, and every licence issued under the section. An inspection is not the moment to discover that the register was last updated two years ago.

A workable register tracks, for each firearm, the make, model and serial number, its licence number and expiry date, which officer it is issued to and when, the competency certificate number of that officer and its expiry, and every movement in and out of the safe. Build it so that a police official can read it without you narrating.

The five year clock

Section 27, as substituted by the Firearms Control Amendment Act 28 of 2006, sets the validity of a section 20 business licence at five years for any business other than a game rancher or hunting, which get ten years. The original 2000 Act said two years and that figure is still widely repeated, so check the licence itself. Every security service provider is on the five year cycle.

Section 24(1) requires the renewal application at least 90 days before expiry. Lodge it in time and section 24(4) keeps the licence valid until the Registrar decides, however long that takes. Lodge it late and there is no such protection: the licence simply expires, and every firearm covered by it becomes an unlicensed firearm in your safe.

With a five year cycle and a 90 day lead, the renewal falls due four years and nine months after issue, which is long enough to forget entirely. Put it in a calendar the day the licence is issued, not the year it expires. PSiRA also charges its own firearm licence fee of R90 per licence recorded with the Authority, which is separate from anything SAPS charges.

Two more 30 day duties apply to business licences exactly as they do to private ones. Section 25 requires written notice to the Registrar of a change of address within 30 days, which for a company means every time you move premises. Section 26 requires the same within 30 days of any change to information submitted with the application, which includes changes in the people running the business.

Ammunition and parts

The 200 cartridge limit in section 91 applies per licensed firearm, so a business holding twenty licensed firearms is working to a different total than a private owner, but to the same rule per firearm. Ammunition bought and discharged at an accredited shooting range falls outside the limit, which matters for training days. Written authorisation to hold more is applied for on form SAPS 540.

Section 94 restricts possession of a "firearm part", defined since the 2006 amendment as a slide, bolt or breech-block, or a device designed to be attached to the barrel to muffle or moderate the report, which brings suppressors inside the section. A business may hold parts if it holds a licence for a firearm capable of bearing them, or holds a dealer's, manufacturer's or gunsmith's licence, an import, export or in-transit permit, or a transporter's permit. Holders of those licences and permits must also keep a prescribed register of all firearm parts in their possession.

Importing, exporting and transporting

Import and export. Sections 73 and 74 govern bringing firearms and ammunition into or out of the country. An import, export or in-transit permit may be issued to a person who is a fit and proper person to hold one, and unless the Registrar directs otherwise in writing, no permit may be issued for firearms or ammunition that do not bear the prescribed identification marks. Section 77 makes the permit itself a licence to possess the firearm or ammunition it covers, so you are not licensed twice. Exports carry an extra step: since the 2006 amendment, section 96(2) requires the Registrar to submit an export application to the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, so an export is not the Registrar's decision alone.

In transit. Section 73(2) prohibits carrying firearms or ammunition in transit through South Africa without an in-transit permit. This catches shipments that are only passing through.

Transporting for reward. Section 86 requires a firearm transporter's permit before any person transports firearms or ammunition for reward. If you move other people's firearms as a service rather than your own between your own sites, this is a separate permit and not something your business licence covers.

Equipment that is not a firearm has its own import rules, which have nothing to do with SAPS. Our import and export code service and the trade compliance service deal with customs codes, International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) permits and National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) approvals for imported equipment.

A practical compliance file

If an inspector arrives tomorrow, these are the things you want in one place: your PSiRA business registration certificate and current annual fee receipt, every section 20 firearm licence with its expiry date, the firearms register, a competency certificate and PSiRA registration for every officer who handles a firearm, the safe custody arrangements, and your import or transporter permits where they apply.

Most operators have all of it. Very few have it in one place with the expiry dates visible, which is the difference between a short inspection and a long one.

What a business application has to show

A business firearm licence is a different animal from a personal one. You are asking to hold firearms as a company, and the application is assessed on the business, not just the person signing it.

• A registered company, with its CIPC documents and a clear record of who the directors are.
• Competency certificates for the responsible people. The individuals who will control the firearms need their own competency, so the personal process still has to happen first.
• A demonstrated business need for each firearm. “Security work” in general is not a case; the application has to connect specific firearms to specific duties.
• Storage that meets the standard for the quantity involved, inspected before approval. Business quantities mean a strongroom rather than a domestic safe.
• A firearm control officer and a register: who signed which firearm out, when, and for what.
• Your sector registrations, current. A security business needs its PSiRA registration in good standing, and a lapse there undermines the firearm application regardless of anything else.

Everything here is inspected rather than accepted on paper. Applications fail on storage and on record-keeping far more often than on the motivation itself.

Frequently asked questions