JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s arms control body has authorised an arms exhibit for North Korea and the possible sale of weapons to Iran, Syria and Libya which should be investigated, the main opposition party said on Tuesday.
The Democratic Alliance said a number of “dodgy” deals had “slipped through the cracks” when South Africa’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) last met in 2008.
David Maynier, a Democratic Alliance MP and shadow defence minister, said the NCACC had authorised a marketing permit for a South African-based company in the past three years to demonstrate and exhibit military support equipment for North Korea.
“The military support equipment was radar warning receivers used on antennae for submarines,” he told Reuters. Maynier declined to name the company but said it had exhibited the equipment “within the last three years”.
The NCACC was set up in 1995 to ensure arms trade and transfer policies conformed to internationally-accepted practices.
Maynier urged South African Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, the new head of the NCACC, to urgently investigate the alleged arms transactions with North Korea and other states.
Neither Radebe’s spokesman nor the official government spokesman were immediately available for comment.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton made a surprise visit to North Korea on Tuesday to try to win the release of two jailed American journalists, and met the country’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-il.
Clinton’s trip followed months of military provocations by the North, which has turned its back on negotiations with regional powers, including the United States and China, to convince it to give up ambitions to build an atomic arsenal.
South African politics have been tarnished by a multi-billion dollar government arms deal for submarines, frigates and jet fighters reached in the late 1990s. Critics accused government officials of corruption in the deal, one of the most controversial in post-apartheid South Africa.
President Jacob Zuma, who was cleared of charges related to the 1990s arms deal, has vowed to end corruption in South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy.
The Democratic Alliance said that over the last year or so, the NCACC had authorised contracting and export permits for multiple grenade launchers and precision-guided glide bombs for Libya and multiple grenade launchers for Syria.
Authorisation was pending for sniper rifles for Syria, it said.
Authorisation of Aviator G-Suits, worn by pilots to prevent blackouts or loss of consciousness, was pending for Iran, it added. Iran is locked in dispute over its nuclear programme that it says is for energy and the West suspects is for arms.
Maynier called the South African arms control authority a serial violator of a law requiring it to produce an annual report to cabinet, parliament and United Nations register on conventional arms.
”They only sometimes produce these annual reports and if I am correct the last annual report was produced in 2005 and that contained information for arms deals during 2003 and 2004.
“The committee has or subsequently did receive reports in respect of 2005 and 2006 but those reports were marked confidential and secret,” Maynier added.
