Chris Steyn (00:02.71)

Civil society group, Safe Citizen, is launching an urgent campaign to interrupt South African Police plans to gain greater control over firearms training. I speak to Nikkie Pretorius, the spokesperson for the Lead Service Provider Forum. Welcome, Nikki.

Nikkie Pretorius (00:22.124)

Thank you, Chris. Thanks for having us.

Chris Steyn (00:25.386)

Nikkie, in simple terms, how does the current system work for an ordinary citizen?

Nikkie Pretorius (00:34.158)

So I think, it's not quite simple, but South Africa's actually, the system is actually quite unique in that the system that we currently work around sits at an intersection between education and legislation. And what I mean by that is on the one hand, you have a structured outcomes-based training system that's aligned to nationally recognised educational standards. And on the other hand, the training feeds directly into legislation. And what I mean by that is the process of competency and licensing.

So when people want to license a firearm for self-defence or apply for their competency to do so, they undergo this particular training within this particular system. And what makes it effective is the quality assurance layer. So we're an industry that's led by a professional body that works alongside the regulators like, for example, SAPS and the rest of the police force to ensure that training is done consistently. It's credible, it's properly assessed, rebuilding proper portfolios of evidence for learners. It's not a perfect system, but it certainly is a system that's been refined over more than a decade and fundamentally designed around public safety and accountability.

Chris Steyn (01:48.342)

And if the proposed changes were made, what would happen then? What process would I be going through to redo my competency or do competency for the first time?

Nikkie Pretorius (01:59.79)

Okay, so look, and this is an issue that is across the various educational systems and training environments, especially when it comes to outcomes-based training. There's a shift away from the unit standard training system that we currently know and use towards skills programs, which are sort of modular based.

And it sounds like a technical adjustment. But in practice, it does represent a change to how firearm training is structured, how it's delivered, and ultimately how it's quality assured.

So the system has been created, but as an industry, we're concerned that it's not fit for purpose. And how that's going to affect South Africa as a whole is that training is not going to be delivered at the same level. The content of the training isn't fit for purpose. And remember, when we put this training system together, we wrote training material that spoke directly to the Firearms Control Act, which it needs to because obviously they're using this training to determine or to make people ready for firearm, to be able to carry a license for self-defense or even in security purposes to be able to use a firearm as a security officer.

So what's going to happen with this shift is previously with unit standard based training, the training would take place over a day, day and a half at maximum and would cost the person about 1800 to 2000 Rand. And that's if you take your hard costs into consideration, you've got to arrange fees, your classroom fees and your instructor fee.

With a skills program, what the educational system says is that a skills programme has notional hours attached to it. And those notional hours dictate how long training needs to take. And now we're looking at a skills program for the purposes of competency that used to take place over a day or a day and a half, now taking place over a five day minimum period in a classroom and on a shooting range. Now you take those hard costs and you multiply them by four or five and you're looking at four thousand six thousand rand depending on the training provider. And over and above the expense, you're looking at five days away from work. And I don't know about you, Chris, but as an individual who has a job, a very demanding job, I don't have time to take five days off of work to be able to apply for a competency.

Nikkie Pretorius (04:18.902)

And even worse for the security officers who undergo the basic training first, which is what you and I would do. But now they're also exposed to a whole lot of additional training in the form of a skills programme. So before they could get their competencies done within three, four, five days, they're now looking at three weeks. And a security officer, let's say for example, who is not an armed security officer and he wants to better himself and advance in his career, he now has to take that time off of work, off of a shift, and go and do the additional training that is required for him to be able to carry a firearm as part of his job. And then obviously he gets paid more money, but who can afford that? So who's going to be able to afford that kind of training on a security officer's salary and the time away from shift? It's simply prohibitive.

Chris Steyn (05:08.469)

So what is going to happen? The demand for firearm licenses will remain, but if people cannot afford the competency preparation to apply for a license, what's going to happen?

Nikkie Pretorius (05:25.368)

Well, there's a saying that goes, it's easy for people to do the right thing, right? We're not. If this move or this transition takes place, we're not making it easy for people to do the right thing. And what happens in an industry like firearm training when people don't do the right thing? Then we're exposed to people going into underground sources. And there's always going to be a supply for that because there's always going to be a demand in our country when the crime is where it is and people need to feel safe and security officers need jobs.

You're going to find that the need is not disappearing, the demand is not disappearing. We're going to find creative ways as society to fulfill those needs. And what's going to happen, and we've seen it before, we saw it before the Firearms Control Act came into play properly in the previous regime, where people just simply buy a certificate without proper training.

And the implications of that are far reaching. And that's why this is a public safety issue. If… it's easy for a security officer or even a civilian like you and I to apply for a firearm license with training that hasn't taken place, how do we know when we may use our firearms for self-defense? How do we know how to safely manage the firearm and aim at the target and apply the fundamentals? We simply don't because we haven't had the training. And that's the crux of the matter here, I think, is this is everybody's problem. It may look like it's a training provider problem. But this is everybody's problem in South Africa.

Chris Steyn (06:55.679)

Now who will be the ultimate authority to oversee this new firearms training system?

Nikkie Pretorius (07:02.744)

Well, that's unclear at the moment. So as I said, we currently have a professional body in place that has worked with our industry to establish the standards and with the Central Firearms Registrar, by the way, because obviously they're the custodians of the Firearms Control Act. And ultimately, the responsibility lies with them to ensure that the Control Act is being implemented in the right way. They're put at risk if training dissipates or deteriorates rather. They're put at risk because how do they now trust the certificates that are being brought to them? And when they're issuing a competency or a firearm license, how do they know that the proper training has taken place?

So we're now seeing a movement towards the Quality Council for Trades and Occupation outsourcing or delegating the function of quality assurance to an entirely new body. And it's a sectoral education training body. Yes, it is. But they don't have the expertise that our industry has to be able to properly quality assure the industry.

And over and above that, a skills programme isn't required to be quality assured like a qualification or a unit standard is. And that's where things are going to fall apart, is we're to have training providers that are applying for accreditation and they simply don't meet the requirements. They haven't undergone proper instructor training, assessor training.

Chris Steyn (07.06)

What will the role of South African Police Services Division Training be in such a new system?

Nikkie Pretorius (07.12)

Sure, Chris, that's an interesting question because the custodians of the Firearm Control Act, that's not SAPS Division Training. It should be SAPS Central Firearms Registrar. So the registrar is the custodian for firearm training, but there seems to be an element of SAPS Division Training getting involved. And we're not sure, we're getting very little feedback from SAPS CFR. So we're not sure what's going on there, to be very honest.

Chris Steyn (07.42)

Okay, now what are your biggest other concerns about the proposed changes?

Nikkie Pretorius (07:48)

So I think, Chris, we have a system that works while it's not perfect. It certainly works. And what I like to remind people of is this is a very unique system for little South Africa, a country on a massive African continent that has this level of quality training for firearm training that is so scrutinized and so highly compliant.

To now lose that element from firearm training in society is just, it's just gonna have such a negative consequence. And I think the biggest concern again comes down to public safety and to, once the system is corroded and it's non-functioning, it's very difficult to pull that back later on.

Chris Steyn (08:40)

Now, there is already a campaign to try and stop proposed changes to Fire Arms Control legislation. And the critics feel that the African National Congress has an agenda to disarm private citizens and leave them defenceless. Will this exacerbate the problem?

Nikkie Pretorius (09:02.05)

Well, I think it's an interesting question. To some degree, sure, I think the law abiding citizens are going to notice that it's just simply too expensive and too time consuming to apply for firearm licenses and competencies. So on the one side, yes, you'll probably see a decline in terms of applications for firearm competencies and training, et cetera.

On the other hand, it's just going to drive the people that really genuinely need firearm licenses for, whether it's sport shooting or hunting or self-defense or security officers, it's simply going to drive that need underground. And then we have a situation where the proliferation of illegal firearms expands, whereas proper law abiding citizen firearm usage and ownership declines.

And I don't think that's something anybody wants to see, anybody in the government wants to see in a country where we're already so riddled by crime and violent crime at that. So, yeah.

Chris Steyn (10:11.671)

Generally there is a feeling that legal firearm owners are being targeted while illegal firearm owners are getting away with it.

Nikkie Pretorius (10:20.466)

Yeah, you know, and Chris, I think like when the Firearms Control Act came out in the beginning, there was huge pushback from society and from firearm owners and sporting and hunting communities because of all the hoops that now needed to be jumped through to be able to apply for competencies. And we've done it. We've done everything that SAPS asked us to do. We've put proper training, proper compliance, proper quality assurance on the table, and we've made it work. And to now see that system in jeopardy is just, it's frightening, to be honest, it's frightening.

Chris Steyn (10:57.177)

In your opinion, what is the solution?

Nikkie Pretorius (11:00.696)

I think with anything, Chris, it's collaboration. We've got to get the right people around the table and be honest with each other and figure out what it is that moves the country, but also the educational sector and government forward.

I mean, it's no secret that the police are struggling with firearms and are struggling with the control of firearms and whatnot. Why add to that problem by implementing or introducing a system that is not going to be any better than what we currently have. Let's look at what we currently have and make it better. So let's improve on it. But that's only going to happen with honest, open conversation around the table with the right stakeholders. And our industry has been calling for that for a long time now. Get us around the table. We are happy to work with whoever to find a good solution to the problem.

Chris Steyn (11:56.349)

Thank you. That was Nikki Pretorius, the spokesperson for the Lead Service Provider Forum speaking to BizNews, I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you, Nikki.

Nikkie Pretorius (12:05.254)

Thank you, Chris.

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