The National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) must make available all minutes of its meetings over the past five years, ahead of its officials appearing before a parliamentary committee next month, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday.
Evaluation of these documents was the only way to gain insight into alleged ”dodgy arms deals” authorised by the NCACC — the government body that oversees South Africa’s arms trade — DA member of Parliament David Maynier said in a statement.
”The DA understands that Minister Jeff Radebe, chairman of the NCACC, together with officials from the Directorate of Conventional Arms Control [DCAC], will now appear before Parliament’s defence and military veterans portfolio committee September 2.
”It is imperative therefore that members of the committee be in a position to properly scrutinise and oversee the NCACC.
”For that reason I have written to Mr Mnyamezeli Booi, chairman of the portfolio committee … and requested that the NCACC be required to produce [certain] documents.”
These included: copies of minutes of all meetings of the NCACC between April 1 2004 and the last meeting of the NCACC; copies of all supporting documents and minutes of all meetings of the Scrutiny Committee between April 1 2004 and the last meeting of the Scrutiny Committee; and, copies of any reports of investigations conducted by the DCAC’s inspectorate between April 1 2004 and the last report produced by the DCAC’s inspectorate.
Maynier said the scrutiny committee was responsible for briefing the NCACC ahead of any proposed arms deal.
”The documents it provides the NCACC with in this regard are the basis on which the NCACC makes its decisions. Therefore they are crucial to understanding its reasoning and must be produced by the NCACC before the meeting with the portfolio committee … if we are to understand how it justified the dodgy deals its has undertaken,” he said.
The DA would use the minister’s appearance at the September 2 meeting as an opportunity to ”maintain the spotlight firmly on the dodgy arms deals and the crisis at the NCACC”.
It would also be an opportunity to ”probe the dodgy arms deals with countries such as Libya, Syria and Venezuela, which were authorised by the NCACC.
”We will [also] use this as an opportunity to probe how it was that the NCACC authorised military support equipment to be demonstrated and exhibited in North Korea,” Maynier said. — Sapa