- The South African government has been accused of supporting rogue and dictatorships across the African continent because of the lack of control in its arms deals.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in the country has said the national conventional arms control committee (NCACC) lacks administrative control and thereby putting the state deals at high risk of supplying black spots in the continent.
The DA’s comment follows a report by the auditor-general which has found that the NCACC could not fully account on the activities, especially those related to the issuing of permits and other controls.
SAPA reported the DA’s spokesman, David Maynier, having said in a statement on Sunday that the register of permits for the international sale of weapons could not be traced.
"The (auditor-general's) report shows that at least 58 arms transactions with clients in at least 26 countries took place without the legally required input by relevant government departments," Maynier was quoted.
Mr Maynier stated that in at least 17 transactions, there were no delivery verification certificates, meaning arms could have been sold to rogue states, further adding that in some cases, the certificate indicating the end-user was missing.
The DA has demanded that the chair of Parliament's portfolio committee on defence and military, to urgently brief Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe, who is also chairman of the NCACC, on the steps being taken to improve the NCACC's administrative capacity.
The issue of arms in South Africa has been in the centre since the infamous arms deal saga which saw people like current President Jacob Zuma and his close business friends being quizzed. The arms deal saga involved millions worth of Rands and other gifts said to have been splashed across the political key figures of the post apartheid regime in South Africa.
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