South African police report exposes gun failures But this week, amid concerns about sending officers onto the country's crime-ridden streets without guns or a shortage of police firepower if they did not patrol, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, acting National Police Commissioner reversed the decision. This is not easy. We're facing criminals who do not need competency certificates. In the past, we would go to a mountain range and shoot and be declared competent. Now it is a different and costly exercise, which is creating a backlog. Captain Dennis Adriao, a SAPS spokesman, said that of the 27,400 deemed not competent by the internal audit, 20,864 had simply not completed the seven-day course, which includes a theoretical, legal principles course, in time. Many officers, he said were perfectly proficient in the use of their normal weapon but not the other two. The 6,536 officers who failed the course, introduced to update apartheid-era gun laws, would have to undergo urgent retraining and be removed from the force if they failed. Although it has made progress in recent years, South Africa is still plagued by violent crime. Last year the rate for murder by firearm was seven people per 10,000.