An unemployed gunsmith who has been charged alongside controversial Gqeberha firearms dealer, Karen Webb, was granted bail in the city's magistrates court on Tuesday.
Francois Van Der Merwe, 57, who lives in George was released on bail of R2 000.
He was arrested last week and like Webb now faces charges related to the Firearms Control Act.
The charges against Van Der Merwe are failure to comply with the packaging requirements for the transportation of firearms, illegal possession of firearms, and illegal possession of ammunition.
The accused, who has been unemployed for the past five years, told the court he is in the process of setting up a business, a small retail and gun repair shop, to support his family.
By way of an affidavit in support of his release on bail, he said to date, he has spent his own money and that from family and friends to fund the project.
"Work in progress came to a standstill when I was arrested. Creditors and suppliers need to be paid.
"Nobody else has access to these details and I am solely in control of planning and payment for work done."
He said completing the building project is tantamount since it will enable him to start trading and earning an income.
Van Der Merwe told the court in his affidavit that he was introduced to Webb at the end of 2023.
He said he was told that Webb wanted to close her gun shop, Webb Arms, and had shop fittings for sale.
"I physically met Karen once when I collected the first few shop fittings from her shop.
"Karen Webb also offered that 500 weapons on her register must move to another safe keeping as she was closing her gun shop."
According to Van Der Merwe, he took this as a financial lifeline, because he could generate income from the storage.
At the time he was sharing facilities with another gunsmith in Sedgefield, Peter Harperstad. Both men needed the extra cash flow.
"He had a license to store firearms as far as I know. He also had large enough gun safes for such storage."
Van Der Merwe states that he had no reason to believe that the necessary authorisations were not in place when they transported the firearms from Gqeberha to Sedgefield.
Webb is said to have driven in a different vehicle and made sure that the cache was counted and a register taken.
"She had weapons with her in her vehicle that she did not offload.
"The last contact I had with her was just before she was arrested."
He claimed to have nothing to do with Webb's business, he tried to assist the investigating officer by counting and drawing up a registry of all the weapons in Sedgefield, and that he "vaguely" followed the "Karen Webb story" in the media until his arrest.
"I was merely caught in the crossfire, so to speak."
The court heard that Van Der Merwe was not a flight risk, he would not endanger the safety of the public, would not evade his trial, and would not interfere with witnesses or conceal or destroy evidence.
Webb has previously been denied bail on two occasions.
Since her arrest in February, numerous counts have been added to her charge sheet.
The long list of existing charges includes theft, conspiracy to smuggle firearms, fraud, the unlicensed trading of firearms, providing firearms and ammunition to persons who are not allowed to possess them, and defeating the ends of justice.
Her arrest on 8 February forms part of an ongoing police investigation into how firearms got into the possession of gangsters in the city's northern areas and other provinces.
Besides 76 firearms that had been positively linked to crimes in the city's northern areas and as far as the Western Cape and Gauteng, evidence was led that suggests that 437 of the 900 firearms registered on Webbs
Arms are unaccounted for but later found.
The theft charge relates to ten 9mm Glock pistols that went missing from the Aquila Arms’ stock while the cache was stored at her premises.
In August, Webb was caught trying to smuggle a cell phone into the North End Prison where she's being kept in custody, pending the outcome of her trial.
Both accused will appear in court again on 19 November.
