NICOLE MORDANT, Pretoria | Thursday 3.15pm
THE government said on Wednesday that it will lift the secrecy that characterised its arms industry during the apartheid era and plot a course for the now embattled sector.
Known for its clandestine nature before the 1994 elections, SA’s arms supply and service industry will now have to become more transparent, the National Conventional Arms Control Committee said in a report.
”It was part of the hidden, menacing past of South Africa . . . We now see an industry that is innovative and committed to the transformation of our country,” committee chairman Kader Asmal said after releasing a government white paper on SA’s defence-related industries.
The 117-page white paper recommends the establishment of an independent inspectorate to scrutinise and oversee the business of defence-related industries. The committee, whose members include up to 10 government ministers and deputy ministers, will submit detailed quarterly reports on all arms sales to cabinet. SA had a lucrative and sophisticated arms industry in the 1980s, when the apartheid regime was involved in several wars across southern Africa.
The sector fell on hard times after 1994 when the new government trimmed defence spending in favour of social programmes.
Domestic arms purchases by Armscor, the state weapons procurement agency, tumbled to just R1,7-billion in 1996/97 from a peak of R3,6-billion – in 1990 rands – in 1989/90.
The industry includes public and private companies, with state-owned Denel, recently earmarked for privatisation, the biggest single arms supplier. — Reuters