POLOKWANE – All valid firearm licenses, permits and authori-zations issued to pos-sess a firearm in terms of the previous Arms and Ammunition Act will remain valid until they are renewed in terms of the new Act, unless they were withdrawn for any le-gal reason.

The new Firearms Control Act came into effect on July 1.

According to a media statement issued from the office of the Provin-cial Police Commis-sioner in Limpopo, all existing firearm licenses will, however, have to be renewed within a specific renewal period, determined by the date of birth of the license holder. The dates are as follows:

License holders born from 1 January to 31 March will have to re-new their licenses from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2005. Those with birth date 1 April to 30 June, from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2006. The renewal date for birth date 1 July to 30 September is from 1 January 2007 to 31 De-cember 2007. Persons born between 1 October and 31 December will have to renew between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2008.

In terms of the new Firearms Control Act, no person will be al-lowed to possess more than 200 rounds of am-munition. This limitation is not applicable to the previous Arms and Ammunition Act. Per-sons who do have more than 200 rounds of am-munition do not have to fear prosecution at this stage, but are encour-aged to prepare to be in line with the provisions of the new Firearms Control Act.

From 1 July, every person who applies for a firearm license must ob-tain a competency cer-tificate which will be is-sued by the SAPS. This certificate will only be issued to persons who have successfully com-pleted a basic training course offered by an ac-credited training institu-tion and a background assessment completed by the SAPS. A compe-tency certificate will be valid for a period of five years.

According to the me-dia release, the Province has structures in place, and designated firearms officers who are better equipped to deal with any aspect relating to li-censing of firearms have been appointed