SA arms in Saudi hands used in Yemen killings

SOUTH Africa’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia have escalated since the start of the devastating war in Yemen in 2015, in contravention of its own National Conventional Arms Control Act of 2002.

This while it has refused requests for arms from countries like Ukraine.

“We should be horrified that our arms are implicated in the tragedy of Yemen, which is Saudi Arabia’s own quagmire,” ANC member Ebrahim Rasool has said.

The 2016/2017 reports of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) document that SA has sold Saudi Arabia heavy weapons worth over R5 million, 25 630 mortar bombs worth R165m, electronic attack systems and military software. SA has also armed the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the Saudi-led coalition prosecuting the war in Yemen, with heavy weapons, ammunition and electronic fighting equipment.

“SA has slipped into a situation where its values have been compromised at the altar of its interests. If the ‘New Dawn’ is to have any meaning, we need to invert the telescope of foreign policy so that we view our interests through the lens of our values,” Rasool said.

The NCAC Act prohibits SA from selling arms to countries engaged in human rights abuses or conflict. The act stipulates: “The Republic is a responsible member of the international community, and will not trade in conventional arms with states engaged in repression, aggression or terrorism.”

In June, Energy Minister Jeff Radebe, who presides over the NCACC, and Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula briefed the joint standing committee on defence about SA’s arms sales. The committee expressed concern over whether SA was supplying weapons to countries perpetrating human rights violations. Mapisa-Nqakula had said: “If there was a record of a country having committed human rights violations, then permits would be denied.”

Radebe had also said “guidance is provided by information about conflicts and SA’s own national interest in the country. The track record of certain countries in terms of their human rights situation was also looked at, including the issue of regional dynamics in particular areas, like whether there was stability or not”.

In the wake of Saudi Arabia’s glaring human rights violations, most recently in the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and warnings from the UN humanitarian chief at the UN Security Council this week that the impending famine in Yemen would be “much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives”, calls are escalating for countries to end all arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners.

Germany and Norway have already banned arms sales to countries fighting in Yemen, and calls have increased for the US, UK, Spain and SA to follow suit.

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, who sits on the NCACC, referred all questions regarding arms sales to Saudi Arabia to Radebe. But he did confirm that if SA were to decide to suspend arms sales to a certain country, that would include sales from both the state-owned arms manufacturer Denel as well as private arms manufacturers, such as the Paramount Group.

Davies recently returned from Saudi Arabia, where he participated in the Joint Economic Commission and presented an investment portfolio booklet to the Saudis of projects that SA would like to investment in.

“We were there to pin down investment projects as part of the $10bn the Saudis pledged to invest in South Africa,” Davies said.

“We are dealing with public Saudi entities such as Aramco, the state oil company, which is investing in an oil refinery in South Africa. There is also Aquapower, which is investing in renewable energy such as concentrated solar power.”

Davies said he expected Saudi participation in tomorrow’s Investment Summit in Sandton.