Both Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele on Tuesday promised to sort out problems associated with the central firearms registry (CFR).

Speaking at a press conference in Pretoria, Mthethwa said that there were serious challenges with the CFR that were undermining the implementation of the Firearms Control Act.

He conceded that some licence applications were taking as long as six years to process and that there were elements of corruption involved in the operation of the registry.

"We have put a nine month turnaround time to resolve all outstanding backlogs."

He said that an intervention team was in place already and implementing changes that it had found was creating problems.

Cele said that seven senior police officers had been moved from their positions, but declined to say who they were.

Secretary of Police Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane said that it was not clear how big the backlog was in terms of firearms registrations, especially the renewal of those licences that had been registered under the old Arms and Ammunition Act.