Johannesburg - South Africa has made a
subtle change to arms export rules that could unlock more than a
billion dollars of weapons sales to countries including Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
A notice published in the Government Gazette on May 11
alters the circumstances under which South African officials can
perform inspections to verify that customers are not
transferring weapons to third parties.
Some of the main buyers of South African arms, including
governments in the Gulf and North Africa, had refused to agree
to the inspections because they considered them a violation of
their sovereignty.
Reuters reported in February that the government was
planning to change the inspection clause in an arms export
document following months of lobbying by defence firms and trade
unions who said thousands of jobs were at stake.
The clause will now read: "It is agreed that on-site
verification of the controlled items may be performed, through
diplomatic process," according to the notice signed by Defence
Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
The previous wording of the clause had been: "It is agreed
that on-site verification of the controlled items may be
performed by an inspector designated by the minister."
Defence sources have told Reuters that countries including
the UAE are more comfortable with the new wording, which should
unlock the stalled weapons exports.
That is a boost to state defence firm Denel, which said last
week that the Covid-19 pandemic and the government's subsequent
lockdown of the economy had brought its operations to a
standstill. Denel also has a local joint venture with Germany's
Rheinmetall, Rheinmetall Denel Munition, that stands
to benefit from the new wording.
In the meantime, however, South Africa's defence sector has
been upended by production and export disruptions caused by the
pandemic.
South Africa's arms industry, which traces its roots to the
apartheid era, manufactures defence products from ammunition to
missiles and armoured vehicles for its own military and
countries around the world.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have between them bought at least a
third of its arms exports in recent years, at a time that they
have been engaged in a war in Yemen.