On Sunday, 2 August, the defence and veterans’ affairs spokesperson of the Democratic Alliance (DA), held a media conference in Cape Town in which he suggested that South Africa’s arms export control regime was in a state of crisis. He also accused the South African government of approving and/or considering the approval of permits to export arms and military equipment to “dodgy” destinations. Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe were mentioned during the DA media conference.
Ironically, South Africa has one of the most advanced and progressive arms export laws and processes in Africa, cornerstones of which, on paper at least, are transparency and human rights considerations. The National Conventional Arms Control Act (as amended) requires the South African government to publish annual reports on its arms exports, and to take human rights considerations of the recipient government (amongst other criteria) into account before approving arms exports. However, in recent years, the South African government appears to have not consistently adhered to these two principles. The reasons for this state of affairs remains a mystery.
As there is no treaty or convention to govern the international arms trade, this sector is primarily regulated by means of national controls and trust. In terms of the latter, the established practice is that exporting governments require importing governments to sign an end-user certificate indicating that they will not re-sell or re-export the arms or military equipment. Evidence suggests that the South African government has approved the export of arms and military equipment to Venezuela and is considering the approval of arms exports to Zimbabwe. Both countries have been implicated in inconsistently adhering to end-user certificates and re-exporting arms to controversial destinations. In addition, Zimbabwe is subject to EU and US arms embargos.
Should South Africa be selling arms to countries that cannot be trusted?
Source: Institute of Security Studies
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