Controversial firearms Bill not yet in Parliament

The draft amendment Bill to the Firearms Control Act – that allegedly removes the right to own a firearm for self-defence – has yet to reach Parliament. The Mercury reports the document – which repealed sections 13 and 14 of the legislation, covering the licensing of private firearms and competency tests – was in its proposal stages when the document was leaked last year. According to the DA’s spokesperson on police, Dianne Kohler Barnard, the proposal had not yet come before the parliamentary committee for discussion. ‘This document was as if someone had bizarre thoughts and then put them on paper and created huge controversy around it. But there has been no sign of it since. It has not come to the Police Portfolio Committee, and whether it will come to Parliament or not, I don’t know,’ she said. Police Minister Bheki Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba, said, ‘The amendment Bill being referred to has not gone through to the Cabinet as yet; it’s still being dealt with internally.'