JARACAL

Gentlemen,

Is the certificate as issued by SAPS according to Firearms Act 1969 Article 43 (1) (KA) - Act 75 of 1969 to act as bona fide hunter recognizable (RPL) as proof of competency in regards to firearm handling and possession in terms of the current Firearms Law in SA?

Reading other various sites it seems as if it is as such. However I would be grateful for a verified view from any legal boffins who are JARACAL members.

Thanks

1596 wrote:Gentlemen,

Is the certificate as issued by SAPS according to Firearms Act 1969 Article 43 (1) (KA) - Act 75 of 1969 to act as bona fide hunter recognizable (RPL) as proof of competency in regards to firearm handling and possession in terms of the current Firearms Law in SA?

Reading other various sites it seems as if it is as such. However I would be grateful for a verified view from any legal boffins who are JARACAL members.

Thanks

Hi 1596,

Your question above addresses multiple issues to clarify...

I am no legal boffin, but as a qualified assessor (not specific to this field) I am of opinion that ONLY an ACCREDITED service provider can issue certificates for RPL (recognition of prior learning)...I therefore don't think that SAPS would qualify as an accredited service provider.

However the Act gives SAPS the authority to issue a competency certificate AFTER taking various requirements into account.

Sec 9 (subsections below indicated) requires the applicant to submit proof from an accredited service provider to the fact that the necessary exams and standards of knowledge was obtained by the applicant.

(q) has successfully completed the prescribed test on knowledge of this Act;
(r) has successfully completed the prescribed training and practical tests
regarding the safe and efficient handling of a firearm; and
(s) has, where applicable, successfully completed the prescribed training and
practical tests for firearms dealers, manufacturers, gunsmiths, security officers
or other persons who use firearms in the course of their business.

So for the above a competency certificate is issued and then submitted with your competency application to SARS who issues you with a certificate that you comply with ALL competency requirements as stated in the Act.

I hope this makes everything as clear as mud to you...I am following this thread to see the reply of our forum legal eagles.

I have to agree with Viking and say no, your Bona Fide Hunter Certificate issued in terms of Act 75 of 1969 will definately not qualify for purposes of RPL

And to answer more fully the following:

The Firearms Control Act, Act 60 of 2000 and more specifically the Regulations as well as the SAQA Act and regulations pertaining to the same, have very prescriptive SAQA Unit Standards that must be complied with.

See Section 9(2)(q) and of the Firearms Control act, which stipulates the following as part of the requirements for a competency certificate to be issued:

q) to a person who has successfully completed the prescribed test on knowledge of this Act (Firearms Control Act); and
r) to a person who has successfully completed the prescribed training and practical tests regarding the safe and efficient handling of a firearm (required SAQA Unit Standards, that I will refer to below)

Also see Regulation 14(6) and (7) of the Firearms Control Act, Act 60 of 2000:

6) The test on knowledge of the Act as contemplated in section 9(2)(q), must comply with the requirements of the South African Qualifications Authority, 1995 (Act 58 of 1995) read with the Skills Development Act, 1998 (Act 97 of 1998).
7) The training and practical tests regarding the safe and efficient handling of a firearm as contemplated in section 9(2)(r) of the Act, must comply with the requirements of the South African Qualifications Authority Act, 1995 (Act 58 of 1995) read with the Skills Development Act, 1998 (Act 97 of 1998).

The current Seta/Qualifications Authority in terms of the above Act and duly appointed by the Minister of Education is PFTC (THE PROFESIONAL FIREARMS TRAINING COUNCIL) and in terms of Act 58 of 1995 as amended the SAQA requirements are as follows:

SAQA 11705 - Knowledge of the Firearms Control Act

SAQA 119649 - Handle and use of a handgun
SAQA 119650 - Handle and use a self-loading rifle or carbine
SAQA 119651 - Handle and use a manually operated rifle or carbine
SAQA 119652 - Handle and use a shotgun

To apply for a competency certificate an applicant currently has to provide both his/her training provider certificate as well as a PFTC SoR (STATEMENT OF RESULTS) and/or a SASSETA Certificate in respect of the correct and current SAQA requirements.

In order to be able to have prior learning recognized, the following from PFTC:

NEWSLETTER NO 13 OF 2015 (from PFTC)

URGENT INFORMATION FOR ALL TRAINING PROVIDERS
Attention All Training Providers
As you are aware the SAPS have issued a National Instruction which requires that all applicants who hand in training certificates, are to produce not only the training provider’s certificate but also the relevant SASSETA certificate or the PFTC Statement of Results. (A SASSETA or POSLEC SETA certificate is considered one and the same.) This new process is very important for quality assurance purposes as we have found several fraudulent certificates which have been issued in the name of legitimate training centres. The new requirement protects you against fraudsters. The below explanation will assist you in helping learners who don’t have the relevant SASSETA certificates.

Learner uploads
All Accredited Training Providers have always known that they are required to submit learner achievements to the relevant ETQA for certification and NLRD upload purposes. No Training Provider has ever been granted the authority to issue certificates for unit standards or qualifications in isolation of SAQA/ QCTO who is the issuing body as per the NQF act. The R20 fee for this has always formed part of the firearm upload process, originally starting with POSLEC SETA then SASSETA and now the PFTC. This amount was to be built into the training/ assessment fee charged to the learner and you are therefore required to provide the relevant document to the learner. If you have already provided the document to the learner but the learner has lost the document and requests a reprint then you may of course charge a small fee for this service.

There are a few reasons why a learner may not have received a SASSETA certificate. Some reasons include, Certificate never collected, certificate never received by training provider, batch sent to wrong address, printing error on certificate, no training provider upload to SASSETA, no payment to SASSETA, just to mention a few.
If for whatever reason you have not provided the relevant SASSETA certificate or PFTC SoR to your learner you may do the following to assist learners who are now being turned away at the police stations.

Situation 1. Portfolio of Evidence is still at the training centre
First verify that this is in fact a learner who completed training at your training centre. You can do this by checking your Database, Training Register, Portfolio of Evidence files or SASSETA batch uploads. If there is evidence that the learner did the required training at your training centre and they are not in possession of a fraudulent training certificate then you may go ahead and upload their details onto the PFTC LMS and print them a Statement of Results immediately. You may do this even for training done several years ago, so long as you are able to take responsibility for the training. The Portfolio of Evidence must be available for Moderation and Verification purposes.

Situation 2. No Portfolio of evidence available
If there is no POE available, this means the training was done more than 6 years ago because you are required to keep the POE on file for 6 years. If you are sure that this is your learner and you can prove this from your training register, data base, batch uploads etc, then you may open a new POE file which must contain the following: You must put a copy of the learners ID, a copy of the learners SAPS Competency Certificate, a new registration form, a copy of the original training certificates showing that training was done more than 6 years ago and then you may go ahead and upload the learner info onto the PFTC LMS and issue the PFTC SoR. You may only issue the PFTC SoR for the unit standards relating to the categories which reflect on the learners SAPS issued Competency Certificate.

Situation 3. Closed Training Provider
In the case of a closed training provider where the learner has both the training provider certificate and the SETA certificate then you may open a new POE file and place the following items in the POE. You must put a copy of the learners ID, a copy of the learners SAPS Competency Certificate, a new registration form, a copy of the original training provider certificates, a copy of the SETA certificates and then you may go ahead and upload the learner info onto the PFTC LMS and issue the PFTC SoR.

Any other learner needing assistance because their training provider is closed will be assisted on a case by case basis. Please ask these learners to contact the PFTC as we may be able to locate their POE from the closed provider. We are in possession of thousands of learner records from closed providers.

Expired unit standards
Unfortunately we can only assist with current unit standards. No one can print certificates or Statement of Results for expired unit standards. This is beyond the PFTC mandate. If the learner is in possession of old 10748 etc unit standards and has the relevant SETA certificate then there is no reason why the SAPS should not accept these certificates. The only way to assist in this regard is to offer an RPL onto the new unit standards.

Do@#$r yamalley...jy het n lang asem!!

Maar dit is 100% korrek!

Ek het groot longe! hahaha

EK wou net die feite waarna jy ook verwys het volledig weergee.