Slow system leaves hunter out of pocket





February 07 2007 at 01:06PM






The High Court has ordered police to stop dragging their feet and to process six firearm licences for a Free State professional hunter, Die Volksblad newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The report said the police must inform Manny Oelrich of Kukama Wing shooting Safaris at Tweespruit by Friday afternoon what the
outcome of his firearm license applications was.

The court order came after Oelrich battled for eight months to get answers on the progress of his application for licences for six shotguns.

According to the report, Oelrich lost about R1-million in the past hunting season because he could not accommodate overseas hunters for lack of licences for shotguns.


Oelrich said in his affidavit he turned to the court after his questions went unanswered, or answers were contradictory, documents were lost, and wrong information was entered into the database of applications.

Inquiries through his lawyer produced contradicting answers, and he "did not know who to believe". Oelrich said the new hunting season starts at the end of February and he has already received bookings which included the hire of shotguns from overseas hunters.

The Bloemfontein High Court order directed police to deliver the certificates and firearm licenses by next week Friday if the license applications were successful. - Sapa

And I'll bet that now that he has forced their hand, they will deny the permits.

Terry,

There is now a new law, unrelated to the firearms act, stipulating that in the absence of action by a reasonable time or submission of good reason by reasonable cause by a government agency, the court will force the agency to grant in favour ofthe applicant. This was the law used in the case I believe. I think its called the Public Procedures act and it applies to any process. eg application for a Identity Document, application for a Government Grant etc.

If you can show the government has been swinging the lead you can get your way.

The court will take a dim view of any "reasons" dreamt up by an official after the court order date and deem them as vexacious.

500nitro,

Thanks for posting this. I don't normally read any newspaper, but this morning I saw the Volksblad and read the part. Decided that I, and many other PH's and HO's, all owe Manny and his legal team, but mostly him, big time!

In good shotgunning!

Andrew McLaren

Eighteen month ago I had received permision to import a double barrel rifle from Germany. Since then that rifle is in my safe but I'm not allowed to use it because the licence hasn't been issued yet.

I'm a registered PH by the way. Why was I allowed to bring a rifle into the country if I may not use it?

Thank the Lord for the Second Amendment.

I'm in the process now of filling in all my relicensesing applications. How much must you put down for a motivation ??? "I'm a ph need the rifle to work" what else do they really need ?

Safari-hunt,

It’s easy. Just copy the Old Testament, all the provincial game laws you can lay your hand on, and the final report of the TRC. Bind them between two of your “motivational statements of need†and submit the lot. The guys evaluating your application won’t even bother to read it – they might pass it on grounds of “apparent completenessâ€.

Good luck.