The Pretoria high court has ordered acting police minister Firoz Cachalia and national commissioner Fannie Masemola to sort out the state’s delays in issuing firearm export permits to companies threatened with losing business.
Formalito, a Pretoria-based firearms dealer that sells firearms to service providers in the military and law enforcement industries, accused the state of months-long delays in deciding on firearms export permit applications.
The company said its foreign buyers were threatening to pull out of deals because of the delays.
“The foreign clients of the applicants have already paid all related invoices in full — amounting to several million rand — in respect of firearms and ammunition that are ready for exports,” argued Formalito compliance officer JJ Pretorius.
Without SAPS permits, business with foreign states of the company, which imports and exports bulk arms, comes to a standstill.
“This delay has placed the commercial relationship with the foreign buyers under severe strain,” Pretorius told the court.
“The applicant has received communication from foreign buyers, threatening to cancel the orders. If these orders are cancelled, it will cause significant financial damage to the applicant,” he said.
Formalito, in operation for 61 years, exports ammunition and arms to Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana and Malawi. It imports products from the US, China, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic and various other European countries.
Judge Sulet Potterill on Tuesday made the order after an urgent application by the Pretoria-based dealer.
SAPS central firearms registry head Brig Phumza Sikhakhane was also a respondent in the matter.
Legal consequences
The court order set legal consequences for SAPS management who constantly face court cases over delays in the permit applications from private companies.
Potterill issued a declaratory order stipulating the SAPS should process the permit applications within 50 business days.
The firearms permit applications are processed by SAPS, after which Masemola hands them to the national conventional arms control committee (NCACC) to consider and approve bulk arms exports.
The committee is headed by minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni. Apart from Cachalia, its members include ministers Angie Motshekga, Ronald Lamola, Blade Nzimande, Parks Tau and his deputy minister.
Pretorius, in an affidavit before court, said the company applied for three permits between November 2024 and May 2025 to export firearms to Swaziland and Namibia.
He said the first application filed to SAPS was on November 20 2024. The state’s firearm control unit initially had an administrative issue with one type of a firearm in the application that was resolved by January 7.
Pretorius said he had sent several emails to SAPS to get an update on the application and was told it had been submitted to the arms committee for consideration and approval.
Another permit application to export arms to the Eswatini police was submitted in May. The application was amended on July 2 to align with an SAPS request before the committee’s consideration.
Pretorius said his company had not received responses for the three applications from SAPS before turning to court.
“If the applicant is required to wait a period of 171 days, as has occurred in respect of [the first application], it is effectively impossible for the application to conduct its business in a commercially viable and profitable manner,” Pretorius argued.
This was not Formalito’s first encounter with SAPS over delays. The company pinned several challenges over delays on the Firearms Control Act and regulations that do not stipulate when the state should conclude applications.
It asked the court to issue a declaratory to set a period in which the SAPS would be obliged to finalise applications.
Potterill, in her order on Tuesday, declared that a reasonable period to finally process export permit applications would be 50 business days.
The judge ordered Cachalia, Masemola and Sikhakhane to “immediately” take all necessary steps to process the export permits or alternatively inform the applicants of the outcomes of the applications within 10 days.
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