Ceasefire Campaign

A new independent report has lifted the lid on South Africa's multi-billion rand international arms trade and its researchers say the government is breaking its own rules. And that some of the world's most oppressive regimes are among South Africa's customers.
South Africa's long been one of the world's leading arms makers and since 1995, the National Conventional Arms Control Committee has been overseeing the trade. The Committee ensures the country meets international rules - and our own laws. South Africa is supposed to avoid selling to countries that could use the weapons against their own civilians, in regional conflicts, for terrorism or in the violation of human rights. But this new report claims those rules are being broken.

It shows the top buyers for South African military hardware include India, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Colombia and Saudi Arabia.

Most of the weapons are classed as sensitive - for example, guns, explosives and tanks. Professor Rob Thomson of the Ceasefire Campaign says: `It's clear from the analysis the Committee has failed to apply the criteria of the act."
“We should not be selling arms to those places, let alone having them as five of our major arms recipients” he added.
The researchers estimate South Africa has sold arms and other equipment worth more than R13-billion in the past decade alone. They used information from the UN, arms maker Denel - and from the arms control committee itself.