When the Randburg Magistrate's Court called Stuart James Scharnick's case on 11 November, his lawyer was no longer on it. Scharnick, out on R5,000 bail, said he would represent himself for the time being, though he indicated he might reconsider once the court documents he has asked for arrive.
The charges are modest next to what the Madlanga Commission has heard. He is accused of failing to update the Central Firearms Registry after moving from Douglasdale, of allowing another person access to his firearm, and of keeping a gun in a safe that allegedly does not meet the Firearms Control Act. The case was postponed to 24 February 2027 so investigators can finish their work.
The weight behind those charges lies elsewhere. Police in KwaZulu-Natal have said that someone inside the South African Police Service (SAPS) altered the official record of a man who then held firearm licences. This story is about what that means for a system that decides who may carry a gun.
What the commission heard
In November 2025, Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo told the Madlanga Commission that Scharnick was an associate of Shadrack Sibiya, the deputy national police commissioner who has since been suspended. Khumalo said a Toyota bakkie Sibiya was often seen driving was registered in Scharnick's name, and that Scharnick had a criminal history that included carjacking and vehicle theft.
Scharnick denied being Sibiya's bodyguard. He told eNCA the two were acquaintances and described his own role as providing "legal assistance". He confirmed he had been convicted, but said the 18 counts were "in one case, not eighteen separate cases". He also opened cases of perjury and defamation against Khumalo.
The record
Nine days after Khumalo testified, KwaZulu-Natal police gave a briefing. They said a review of Scharnick's file covered 29 cases: 18 vehicle-related matters and 11 others. According to The Citizen's account of the briefing, those 29 cases had been reduced to a single conviction. A SAPS employee at the criminal record centre, police said, had accessed the system and cleared the record. The officer was placed under investigation.
The Citizen reported this week that the vehicle cases, said to involve 10 thefts and eight carjackings, were reportedly consolidated in a plea agreement that produced a five-year suspended sentence and a R150,000 fine. The report gives no year for the deal.
The same report says earlier theft and possession-of-stolen-property convictions, dating from 2004 to 2012, were later removed through expungement. That sits uneasily with what KwaZulu-Natal police said in November 2025: that they had found no record of Scharnick applying to have his record expunged. The two accounts have not been reconciled in any report reviewed for this story.
The arrest outside the commission
On 20 August 2026, Scharnick was arrested outside the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria, where the commission holds its public hearings. The arrest followed an intimidation complaint from Sowetan journalist Herman Moloi. Police allege he obtained five firearm licences for sporting purposes despite his previous convictions. He has not been convicted of any new offence, and he disputes the allegations made against him.
KwaZulu-Natal police said they would investigate how the licences were granted.
Why the record matters
A firearm licence application depends on the integrity of one thing: the record of what a person has been convicted of. If someone with access to that system can shrink a long history to one line, every check built on it fails quietly. Nobody refuses the licence, because the system shows nothing to refuse.
The commission has focused on powerful names. This episode concerns a records clerk's access rather than a general's orders, and the SAPS has not publicly said what controls now stop the same thing happening again.
What remains unanswered
None of the reports reviewed names the employee, says whether he or she has been charged, or carries a response from SAPS. Nor do they explain how five licences were issued.
Scharnick returns to court on 24 February 2027. The question of who cleared his record has no court date.
