Marion Edmunds
Government intelligence services are investigating reports that South African- produced weapons have been recovered on both sides of the conflict in Sudan.
The National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) – the committee that regulates South African arms exports – denied this week that the government had authorised arms sales to the Sudanese government.
A representative added that the country, viewed as one of the world’s pariah states, was on South Africa’s “black list”. However, government documents seen by the Mail & Guardian say the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) captured South African-made military hardware from the Sudanese government forces three months ago.
It is understood that President Nelson Mandela, who is trying to pave the way for mediation in Sudan, had to do some fast talking last weekend when the reports surfaced during his meeting in Pretoria with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Sudanese President Omar al Bashir. Mandela succeeded in smoothing the matter over.
The investigation, being quietly undertaken by the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee and overseen by the Ministry of Defence, is likely to focus on whether the hardware was part of a batch South Africa sold to Museveni – an ally of the SPLA – and if not, where it could have originated.
“The equipment was detailed quite comprehensively and the source had already verified the end-user certificate of the specific item from the Ugandan military establishment,” the document says. “It remains difficult to trace a specific log number in a large export batch, but it is possible that the specific item was not included in the official export to Uganda, thus raising further questions about the origin of the equipment.”
The NCACC is already awaiting a report from intelligence services about how armoured vehicles, ammunition and anti-aircraft missiles South Africa sold to Museveni in 1995 and 1996 had been found in SPLA hands.
This latest incident of South Africa’s failure to rein in its arms industry – reports of our weapons have surfaced in other African hot spots including Congo (Brazzaville) – provides an embarrassing backdrop to Mandela’s peacemaking efforts.
The meeting in Pretoria was convened principally to discuss Uganda’s extensive and overt support for the Sudanese rebels, and the faltering peace talks between the warring parties. Despite earlier talks with Mandela, SPLA leader John Garang refused to discuss peace initiatives with Bashir in South Africa. Government observers say Mandela is motivated by a desire to help heal troubled central Africa, and to establish peace-making as one of the central planks in South Africa’s developing foreign policy.
The government has introduced draft legislation in Parliament to curtail the activities of South African-based mercenaries. The NCACC, run by Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Kader Asmal, would regulate the private sale of military assistance to foreign governments if the Bill is passed. The NCACC, however, has only been operating for two years. South Africa’s arms sales before that were kept under wraps – leaving the possibility that weapons sold years ago can still surface in the worst places at embarrassing moments.
The Sudanese government alerted Pretoria earlier this year that South African weapons sold to Uganda had ended up with the SPLA. “The arms referred to included medium armoured vehicles, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, ammunition and mine detection systems,” the committee’s representative said. “The NCACC records reflect that, excluding the anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, the items mentioned had been exported to Uganda in 1995 and 1996.” He added that Museveni had undertaken not to embarrass South Africa by disobeying the conditions set for any arms sale on an end-user certificate.