OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 5.00pm.
A REPORT to be handed to South African President Thabo Mbeki this week proposes that the country’s planned 30-billion-rand (five-billion-dollar) arms procurement programme be cut back, reports said on Sunday. According to the Sunday Times newspaper, the report suggests the postponement of arms purchases worth “billions of rand” from foreign suppliers. South Africa’s chief negotiator in the arms deal, Jayendra Naidoo, told the paper that deals in some of the six weapons categories that make up the massive post-apartheid upgrade package “may be deferred.”
Naidoo said: “We are saving billions and making billions,” but he declined to divulge details of changes in the delivery timetable or to say which categories will be affected.
Naidoo in June warned that a lack of funds threatened the removal of some of the arms from the “very expensive package” — which includes fighter aircraft, submarines and marine patrol vessels. But negotiators later indicated that the military had convinced them of the need of “every piece of equipment” on its shopping list.
Instead of scrapping some deals, the arms may simply be bought later than planned.
The report to Mbeki flows from an investigation by Naidoo into whether South Africa can afford all military hardware it wants. South Africa has announced that Swedish, British, German and Italian defence groups are the preferred suppliers of weaponry.
The deals are linked to complex development and investment projects by the tender companies, which South Africa hopes will create between up to 100000 new jobs and bring back home the money spent in the form of countertrade and investment benefits. The deal has met with opposition at home, with detractors arguing that the money would be better spent on social development.–AFP