Arms dealers’ guide to philanthropy
Businessmen sell weapons to dictators but their foundations paint them in a different light
Ivor Ichikowitz is the founder and executive chairperson of the Paramount Group, the largest private arms manufacturer in Africa. It makes armoured vehicles, naval ships, helicopters and fighter jets. But Ichikowitz would prefer not to be remembered for the weapons systems he sells to autocratic regimes including Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.
Instead, he wants to focus on his philanthropy. As the website of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation puts it: “Ivor is an African industrialist and philanthropist with a passion for Africa and its people.”
It was the charitable version of Ichikowitz on show at the recent Rhodes Forum, held last weekend on the Greek island of Rhodes. He participated in a panel discussion on the role of philanthropy in the new world order. The forum is an annual conference organised by the Dialogue of Civilisations, a controversial think-tank run by Russian oligarch Vladimir Yakunin. He is close to President Vladimir Putin and is on a United States sanctions list in connection with his alleged role in the annexation of Crimea.
During his presentation, Ichikowitz spoke passionately about his foundation’s African Oral History Archive, which aims to preserve original testimony from participants in the fight against apartheid, and about his commitments to conservation and antipoaching efforts.
He views poaching as a major threat to international security. “In my day job we run an aerospace and defence business, which is global, where we come face to face with conflict all over the world. We realised that a lot of this conflict was created by the proceeds of cross-border crime, including the trade in contraband wildlife products.” This trade, he added, “ultimately funds the purchase of weapons, which creates hotspots on the continent”.
His solution: more weapons. In 2016, his foundation donated a Gazelle helicopter and antipoaching equipment to the Gabon National Parks Agency for its Antipoaching Rapid Response Task Force. In a tidy confluence of interests, Gabon — ruled by the same family since 1967 — is a long-time customer of the Paramount Group, having previously purchased 10 Maverick internal security vehicles and six refurbished Mirage F1 fighter jets, according to online news publication Defenceweb.
Ichikowitz has strong views on philanthropy. He identifies three types of philanthropist in Africa. The first, for whom he has no time, are the ones “who talk a lot and do very little”. The second, with whom he identifies, are those who “roll up their sleeves, they get the job done, they bulldoze everyone out of the way to get the job done”. The third are the Westernbased “think-tanks” who use “philanthropy, thinly-veiled, to impose radical ideas to interfere politically, create regime change, often for other nefarious purposes. That’s a problem, it gives philanthropy a very bad name.”