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Find your SAPS firearm office

Every firearm application is lodged at the SAPS station whose precinct covers your residential address — not the nearest one, and not the most convenient one. This directory lists all 1163 SAPS stations in South Africa by province, with the suburbs each precinct covers and the published crime figures for that area.

Browse by province

Why the right station matters

Your Designated Firearm Officer sits at the station serving your home address. That officer takes your application, interviews you, inspects your safe and forwards the file to the Central Firearms Register. Walking into the wrong station wastes a morning, and lodging at the wrong one causes problems later when your file cannot be found.

If you have moved, your file does not follow you automatically — you must lodge a SAPS 521(b) change of address.

What to take to the firearm office

• Your completed SAPS form — the SAPS 271 for a new licence, the SAPS 517(e) for a renewal, or the SAPS 517(g) for a competency renewal.
• Your motivation letter.
• Your document pack, with everything certified within the last three months.
• Your ID.

Ask for the acknowledgement of receipt before you leave, and photograph it. That reference number is the only way to track the application afterwards.

About the crime figures on these pages

Each station page carries the South African Police Service's own published crime statistics for that precinct. They are there for a practical reason: a Section 13 or Section 14 self-defence motivation that cites the figures where you actually live is far stronger than one that talks about crime in South Africa generally. How to use them in a motivation letter →