The Star of July 9, revealed that the Hawks special investigation unit are investigating claims by a former employee of a prominent gunshop in Johannesburg that the shop had paid bribes to brigadier Mathapelo Miriam Mangwani, the Officer Commanding the South African Police Services’ Central Firearms Register to expedite licence applications.
According to The Star the gunshop in question rejected these claims and said that their firm was actually involved in three cases against the brigadier for CFR inefficiencies in licence processing. The shop is reported to have said that they had fired the employee who made the allegations for administrative misconduct and they assume that her claims constitute revenge for dismissal.
The firearms retail industry in general appears to be quite satisfied with the service and tempo of licence application processing by the CFR since brigadier Mangwani had taken over command as she had succeeded in reducing turnaround times to weeks rather than the years it took under her unpopular predecessor, brigadier Jaco Bothma.