Ceasefire Campaign

After three-and-a-half years of costly procedural and legal action with the help of the SouthAfrican History Archive and the Open Democracy Advice Centre, the Ceasefire Campaign has finally succeeded in obtaining the annual reports of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee for the ten-year period from 2000 to 2009.In 2008 South Africans and civil society from other SADC countries, stood united in their determination that arms should not reach Zimbabwe, whose human-rights record is one of the worst in the world. In a move that beggared belief, the NCACC had ratified the transfer of arms across our country claiming that this was in accordance with the criteria laid out in the NCAC Act. Statements made by the Defence Secretariat at the time indicated that it was quite unaware of the criteria themselves. This example illustrates how critical it is that the records are open for perusal if we are to hold the NCACC accountable for arms transfers condoned in our name.

The Ceasefire Campaign has compiled these records, together with records from the United Nations Register of Conventional Weapons, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and other sources, to give as full a record as possible of South Africa’s arms exports during this period. From this compilation, disturbing findings emerge.In terms of its governing act, the NCACC must apply certain criteria to the approvalof any application for the export of arms to another country. These criteria relate inter alia to the human rights in the recipient countries, the degree of conflict in that country, international arms embargoes against it, the controls imposed by it on arms transfers and the effect of military expenditure in that country on its human security and development. All these criteria have been disregarded by the NCACC. It is suggested that, in general, the Committee has not even attempted to apply those criteria and is in gross dereliction of its duty to do so.From the Ceasefire database it emerges that:

− 58 recipient countries failed at least one of the criteria;

− for every criterion considered there were at least six recipient countries that failed it;

− R13,2 billion of arms were sold to these countries, of which 60% comprised sensitive weapons.Not only does the Act lay down criteria for the export of arms, it also requires  transparency. In fact, in the preamble to the Act, it is stated that its purpose is, inter alia, “to ensure the implementation of a legitimate, effective and transparent control process.” Not only does the Committee fail to be transparent, it labels as “SECRET” documents that it should be making public, and it refuses to make them accessible to the public without lengthy procedural and legal action in terms of the Public Access to Information Act. Even in those documents it fails to disclose all the details that it is required by law to disclose.In its returns to the United Nations Register of Conventional Weapons, it fails to include arms transfers that it does not wish to disclose. From statements by the Defence Secretariat it appears that, if a purchaser does not wish its purchase to be disclosed, the NCACC will accept conditions of secrecy in contravention of the Act. The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence is failing to hold the Committee accountable for this violation of its obligations to the public.It is evident that a culture of secrecy, or at least bureaucratic resistance to transparency, reigns within the offices of the NCACC. This is contrary both to the intentions of the Act and to its specific requirements. It is also contrary to the Public Access to Information Act. It undermines the purpose of the Act to recognise the right of the public to information and to build confidence amongst South Africa’s trading partners in its sound control of arms transfers. It treats Parliament as a gathering of stooges, and Parliament lamely fails to hold it accountable.It appears that the culture of secrecy within the NCACC is attributable at least in part to the culture and the power of the military–industrial complex established during apartheid and perpetuated in the new South Africa. This has apparently resulted in regulatory capture of the arms-control process by the arms industry. Parliament urgently needs to re-establish the accountability of the NCACC to Parliament itself and, through Parliament, to the people of South Africa. Equally urgently, it needs to ensure that the culture of secrecy ruling there be transformed to a culture of transparency.

South Africa selling arms to rogue countries - Times LIVE