The new South African arms.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Author: Young, Peter Lewis
• Date: 01 January 2001

Created by Apartheid and Expanded by the ANC

Nelson Mandela said many times from his Robben Island prison cell that he would abolish the export of arms from South Africa. He said it was an 'immoral' trade in 'human misery'. But when Mr Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) came to power, it retained the previous management of South Africa's arms industry. Not only was the threat to end exports dropped, but weapons exports have in fact increased.

The head of the military wing of the ANC, Joe Modise, became the first black South African Defence Minister. Modise's responsibilities included defence industry and weapons exports. Modise was soon travelling internationally with South African defence industry executives, making speeches extolling the brilliance of South African defence technology. Thabo Mbeki's Defence Minister, Mosiuoa Lekota, also a former resident of Robben Island, is now doing the same.

The Apartheid Beginnings (1)

South Africa's modern arms industry owes its development to the 1977 United Nations embargo on arms trading with the Apartheid regime. As a result of the United Nations embargo, the white minority government was motivated to make South Africa as self-sufficient as possible in weapons manufacture. What could not be built in South Africa would have to be smuggled into the country --technology, parts or whole weapons systems. This program had support at the highest level under the defence ministership and, later, prime ministership, of Pieter Botha. (Botha's Afrikaans nick-name at the time was Piet Waapens--'Pete Weapons'.)

France was one of the last nations to stop exporting weapons technology to Apartheid South Africa. Various French-designed armoured vehicles, helicopters and fighter aircraft already in South Africa were modernized and remodelled to create 'new' weapons systems. (2) The French never really ended their contacts with Apartheid South Africa's arms industry. As one French arms salesman put it to me, 'Political situations change. Sometimes it is wise to leave a door a little open in case you want to go back into that room again'. (3)

The Apartheid government built up a sophisticated network for the covert import of weapons technology via various 'front' organizations based in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Spain and Portugal. This trade often relied upon corrupt officials in other African countries. For a price, these officials provided documents (end-user certificates) which purported to show that the arms were intended for their own country, not South Africa. The weapons were off-loaded in South Africa.

South African government agents found Italy to be a particularly good place to 'shop'. South Africa acquired its best utility transport aircraft from Italy: a Lockheed-designed aircraft made under licence by Aermacchi, powered by Avco Lycoming engines made under licence by Piaggio. It was not until 1989 that the Italian government began to move against this illegal arms export racket, and only as a result of United States pressure.

A retired South African general, now a consultant to an arms manufacturer, told me:

Italy was the best place to buy in the seventies and early eighties. They took the view that if the papers appeared to be in order then that was all that needed to be done. I'm sure they knew where things were going to but their management was saying export!, export!, export! Sometimes we bought on behalf of other nations--our operation was so good we had customers. (4) One regular 'customer' was another white minority regime of the time, Rhodesia. What could not be gained from individual nations, had to be gained from private arms dealers. Apartheid South Africa had strong links with private arms dealers in Spain and Portugal. (5)

One of South Africa's most notable clandestine technology transfer operations is the G5 155mm long-range howitzer. This weapon was developed by Canadian Dr Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation. Bull had worked for the United States military but when it cancelled his beloved 'super-gun' project, he went freelance. It has been said that the CIA aided the development of the G5 because it valued South Africa's support for Angola's UNITA rebels fighting the Cuban-backed central Angolan government. Certainly South Africa needed the Bull-designed howitzer--the Cubans Soviet-supplied cannons out-ranged those of South Africa. (6) Having been 'proved' in Angola, the G5 was exported to both sides during the Iran-Iraq war. That war (1980-88) made a major contribution to the coffers of Apartheid South...