Justice Department officials are investigating the apparent illegal sale of missile technology to Chile, allegedly by staff of the Defence Ministry’s arms procurement agency Armscor.
Armscor representative Bertus Cilliers confirmed on Monday morning that Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit detectives had raided Armscor’s premises and confiscated computers and documents.
Cilliers said he was not in a position to comment further. Directorate of Public Prosecutions representative Sipho Ngwema also confirmed the probe, adding that it was at a sensitive stage. He said no arrests had been made and none were immediately expected.
The Afrikaans daily Beeld reported on Monday that detectives, led by unit head Advocate Chris Jordaan, had apparently also seized cellphones and computers from the homes of several, unnamed Armscor and defence force officials.
The raids, conducted around Tuesday last week, were a well-kept secret until Sunday, with only justice officials and the top management of Armscor in the know, the paper said.
”Armscor per se, is not necessarily a suspect,” Jordaan said.
Suspicions were that staff members might have been involved in the sale of the technology.
Sources told the paper the investigation was launched when evidence gathered after a spate of recent burglaries at Denel Aviation in Kempton Park and at Kentron — Denel’s missile division at Irene — were followed up.
It is not clear what was allegedly sold to Chile and neither the Chilean Embassy nor the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) were immediately available for comment.
If it was missile technology, as reported, its export would fall foul of the NCACC’s export control regime unless the relevant permits had been issued.
If the technology involved related to surface to surface missile (SSM) systems or remotely or automatically piloted unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) it could also bring the country in conflict with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) which regulates the proliferation of that technology worldwide.
This could imperil current and future international defence co-operation with South Africa and might prompt the US to reimpose an arms embargo.
US apartheid era arms sanctions remained in place to 1998 as a penalty on South African companies, including Armscor and Kentron, smuggling US technology to South Africa and later exporting it to Iraq between 1978 and 1989.
The bar was only lifted when the current government and the Clinton administration came to an agreement that placed a heavy burden on South Africa with regard to the development and export of military high technology.
This includes notifying the US in advance of any marketing and sales of systems including American technology.
Armscor, Kentron and Fuchs Electronics in 1997 paid US justice authorities $12,5-million (now about R125-milion) in fines to settle a number of outstanding criminal indictments and to avoid the extradition of certain employees that were to stand trial.
South Africa has not been involved in SSM research since signing the MTCR in the early 1990s but Kentron is currently developing air launched cruise missiles and fields a range of UAVs.
The break-ins at Denel led to the resignation, apparently under a cloud, of Denel Aviation assistant general manager Johann Holdt.
Denel group chairman Sandile Zungu afterwards said the state armaments group was determined to stamp out a culture of non-accountability at its subsidiaries. Zungu did not elaborate further.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota to ”immediately” launch his own investigation into the allegations.
”The current Specialised Commercial Crime Unit investigation, together with recent reports of break-ins at arms manufacturer Denel as well as its missile section Kentron shows that all is not well in the South African defence industry,” DA defence representative Hendrik Schmidt said in a statement.
Schmidt said if the allegations were true it could severely damage South Africa’s foreign relations with countries such as the US. He also called for the speedy debate in Parliament of the National Conventional Arms Control Council Bill.
”The Bill aims to ensure that the Conventional Arms Control Council exercises control over the export of conventional armaments such as missiles, a very relevant topic given the latest developments,” Schmidt said.
”The Bill was approved by Parliament’s defence portfolio committee in March 2002 but the debate on the Bill was postponed a day before its scheduled date, with no explanation given.”
Lekota’s representative, Sam Mkhwanazi, said the minister would address the media on the issue in Cape Town at 5.30pm.
Lekota was in the city to make his annual defence budget vote speech to Parliament on Tuesday. ? Sapa