The Criminal Record Centre (CRC) is the backbone of the criminal justice system. Every bail application depends on it. Every firearm license depends on it. Yet the CRC is so under-resourced that clearance certificates take months – sometimes years – to process.
The result: accused criminals get bail because a judge has no record to reference. Law-abiding citizens wait endlessly for firearm licenses while violent offenders walk free. This is not a bureaucratic inconvenience – it is a systemic failure that costs lives.
Civil Society SA has filed a PAIA application requesting CRC processing time data from SAPS. The data, if released, will show the true scale of the crisis.
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