Shadow defence and military veterans minister Kobus Marais does not share the enthusiasm of his colleagues on the Joint Standing Committee for Defence (JSCD) when it comes to the apparent nod of approval given to the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) for its 2015 annual report.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) MP points out the committee was “assured” the requisite guarantees and documents for conventional arms exports had been received by the NCACC.
“They, however, had no documents with them to show and prove to us,” he said following Friday’s JSCD meeting where presentations were made on the NCACC annual and quarterly reports.
“There are rumours that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates support Islamic State but the NCACC maintains the embassies of these countries confirm arms exports from South Africa were used correctly,” he said adding he would be asking more questions on these issues.
Another point of contention for Marais is no export of products “obviously” used in conventional warfare, but “many of the products, components and technology can be used for further production of warfare ‘creations'”.
An analysis of the 2015 NCACC annual report, prepared for the JSCD, shows 125 South African companies registered as arms exporters – up from the 107 registered in the 2014 calendar year.
Thirteen marketing permits were authorised, less than the 15 reported in 2014. As far as contracting is concerned the analysis shows 279 contract permits to the value of R117 billion were authorised with 70 countries. These are issued for execution over a number of years and are not finalised transactions. This is again lower than the previous year but almost triple the amount in monetary value. For 2014, 326 permits were authorised with 84 countries at a value of R42.5 billion.
The number of export permits authorised for 2015 was 2 743 to the value of R2.7 billion involving 86 countries. Again this was higher than the previous year when 2 418 permits valued at R2.9 billion to 86 countries were authorised.
A major export item was armoured personnel carriers with 280 going to Azerbaijan, Burundi, Cameroon, Denmark, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Oman, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand. Thirty-five mine protection and protected vehicles were sold to Angola and Iraq and six armoured personnel carrier hulls went to Thailand and Uganda.
Eighty missiles valued at R44.8 million were exported to Iraq (most likely Denel Dynamics Ingwes for helicopter launching), a point the Parliamentary research team felt the JSCD should take up with the NCACC because Iraq is “still facing low intensity conflict”.
Various heavy weapons, including 40mm guns, sniper rifles, anti-materiel rifles, turrets and light machinegun turrets were exported to Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). All told 181 machineguns from South Africa were exported to Jordan and Malaysia.
The analysts question the listing of “300 items exported to Oman” asking for descriptions as “this information seems to have been omitted in the annual report”.
More than 2 700 bombs were exported to the UAE with 27 676 mortar bombs of various calibres exported to the UAE, Oman and The Netherlands. Grenades of various unspecified types were sold to Oman and Namibia.
Eleven countries – Algeria, Botswana, Germany, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – bought ammunition from South Africa. The value of the ammunition is not given.
Integrated defensive aid suites, IFF transponders, muzzle velocity radars, electronic countermeasure systems, and electronic warfare systems were exported to Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UAE and the United Kingdom.
South Africa’s arms exports (export permits) were worth R2.98 billion in 2014 compared to R3.2 billion the year before and R10.6 billion in 2012, according to NCACC figures.
