The South African defence company Reutech has launched a high-level investigation into the possible illegal export of South African weapons technology to Pakistan.
Though Reunert, the parent company of Reutech, has refused to comment on the investigation, the Mail & Guardian has established that two senior executives have already resigned — though no evidence was found to implicate them.
Claude Makins, CEO of Reutech Defence Industries (RDI), and Ian McLaren, head of the air-weapons division, resigned about two weeks ago, after Reunert CEO Gerrit ”Boel” Pretorius suspended them on September 10.
Gerrit Oosthuisen, the company’s spokesperson, confirmed that the two had resigned but refused to say anything further, citing confidentiality agreements between the company and the men.
M&G that Makins and McLaren were suspended after the allegations were made that they were involved in setting up a company in Pakistan to manufacture bomb fuses for the Pakistani defence force. The RDI division McLaren headed specialises in manufacturing these fuses.
It is understood the internal investigation failed to uncover any evidence linking the two men to these claims, but the probe resulted in a ”breakdown in trust” between the company and its two senior employees and they opted to resign.
Makins failed to respond to messages left on his cellphone. McLaren’s wife told the M&G she had passed messages on to him, but he also failed to respond.
Sources at Reunert confirmed it is investigating leads suggesting that the fuse technology was exported to Pakistan without authorisation and that former employees may now be working in Pakistan.
Fred Marais, director of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, told the M&G he was aware of the investigation and the South African police were also involved in the probe.
The South African National Conventional Arms Control Committee has suspended new export licences for Pakistan since the 1999 coup by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
South Africa exported more than R110-million of equipment in 2000 and last year under existing export contracts not covered by the ban.
There appears to be uncertainty over the status of the fuse technology exports because of a Reutech contract from 1992. South Africa could be politically and commercially embarrassed if the ”very sensitive” investigations reveal that fuse technology is still being supplied to Pakistan. The Reunert group also supplies fuses to India.
Many South African defence companies and employees have considerable experience in sanctions busting, raising concerns about the effectiveness of control over the export of weapons and technology.
Reutech had a long and colourful history of shady deals before 1994.
A United States court indicted Pretorius in 1991 for involvement in a conspiracy to export US technology to South Africa and Iraq in the 1980s in defiance of US law. The indictment was only dropped after 1994, after protracted negotiations between the new democratic government and its US counterparts.
Fuse technology was also at issue in that case, which involved cluster bombs produced by the Chilean arms manufacturer Carlos Cardoen that were sold to the Iraqis.
Pretorius made clandestine trips to Baghdad during the 1980s. Reutech even made use of a converted trawler, owned by a front company, which secretly plied a route between Durban and the Iraqi port of Basrah.
Tony Ellingford, the company’s previous CEO, resigned suddenly in 1997 after US intelligence officials informed the Reunert board that he controlled a Swiss Bank account containing about $2-million. The US investigators found the account in an investigation of sanctions-busting charges against another Reunert subsidiary, Fuchs.
Reunert apparently did not know about the Swiss account and a legal wrangle ensued over the money, some of which was eventually paid to the company in an out-of-court settlement.