Publication: Business Day Issued: Date: 2007-04-04 Reporter: Wyndham Hartley

Secret Report Details Shock Armscor Sales

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date 2007-04-04

Reporter

 Wyndham Hartley

Web Link

www.businessday.co.za

 

Cape Town ­ In revelations that could further damage SA’s international reputation, a top-secret forensic investigation has shown that defence procurement agency Armscor has been selling hundreds of millions of rounds of surplus small arms ammunition into the open market in conflict with government policy.

SA has for years been seen as a leader in the crackdown on small arms proliferation, particularly after its voluntary destruction of all land mine stocks and a 1997 cabinet decision to destroy all surplus small arms ammunition.

The revelations of the ammunition sales follow hard on the heels of SA’s much-criticised foreign policy positions on Burma and Zimbabwe as well as ongoing allegations of corruption in the arms deal.

The November 2005 forensic report by First Consulting, hired by defence secretary January Masilela after reports of allegations of irregularities at Armscor, also reveals a breach of national security in the export of Ratel infantry assault vehicles with top-secret codes and algorithms in place when radios should have been removed from the vehicles before export. Armscor CEO Sipho Thomo and two other officials were suspended over the Ratel affair but have since been reinstated.

The sale of millions of rounds of 7,62mm and 5,56mm (for AK-47 and R-4 and R-5 rifles) to Industrie Spreewerk Lubben (ISL) in Germany, ostensibly for destruction and onward sale to companies in the US, has seen the US market flooded with military and police surplus ammunition from SA. Apparently the ammunition is openly advertised on the internet.

The report contains a litany of allegations over Armscor officials exporting the ammunition on the basis of expired end-user certificates for Guyana and of authorisation for re-export being given by Armscor officials bypassing the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

The top secret report, of which Business Day has a copy, has been circulated to only two people, Masilela himself and Gen J Ledwaba, the head of the Military Police Agency.

In all, there were eight exports of ammunition to Germany from 1998-2000. The original rationale was that ISL would “demilitarise” the ammunition but the end-user certificate was changed to allow the re-export of the ammunition.

First Consulting reported that notwithstanding a cabinet decision in 1997 that surplus ammunition should be destroyed, “Armscor continued to sell surplus ammunition in the open overseas market”.

The cabinet decision allowed government-to-government sales but the sales by Armscor were to private companies.

“In conclusion, the contracting permit application was made with an intention to mislead the NCACC to approve the permit without revealing all relevant factors with regard to the demilitarisation and re-export of surplus South African National Defence Force (SANDF) ammunition.

“An authorisation to re-export surplus SANDF ammunition “as is” was later sent to the German authorities by an Armscor official,” the report says.

The allegation of surplus SANDF ammunition flooding into the USA led to the NCACC calling for an investigation.

“Our investigation revealed that regulatory and procedural processes were blatantly violated.

“ It is proposed that the present staff and members of the committees be re-evaluated, educated and vetted.

“Further, those who in any way are guilty of any indiscretion or criminal liability must face the full wrath of the criminal justice system.”

At time of going to press Armscor was considering a response.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.


Most of the ammunition exported to the US is purchased by target shooting enthusiasts who want to blast off as many rounds as possible at the lowest cost.

However, what will make the US authorities spitting mad is that contained amongst these illegal shipments of surplus ammunition, are small quantities of armour-piercing 7,62 mm ammunition which can lethally penetrate the protective systems of both security personnel ("bullet-proof vests") and armoured vehicles, such as cash transporting vehicles. This ups the ante from money-grabbing to deadly serious criminality.

However, what I also fail to understand is why the SANDF and SAPS want to get rid of this ammunition at all. Firstly, rifle ammunition has a shelf life of up to 100 years and can be safely and securely stored in a number underground SANDF facilities where only insider involvement at high levels can cause shrinkage.

So one day when Generaal Doos de la Zooma comes charging out of the dark ages on his Toyota technical 4x4 with twin 5.0 Brownings and a couple of Molotov cocktails to challenge the RSA's new found democracy, there be enough ammo in the ammo dumps to spray wildly on full automatic in his general direction.

Secondly, almost every member of the SANDF from rifleman to general needs as much shooting practice as they can get. Instead of lying in until 09:00 each day and giving the sergeant or staff-sergeant (these days the lance-corporals and corporals also lie in) the two-finger salute, each member should tree-aan for skietparade each week and fire off 10 000 rounds per year per member. That would account for say 400 million rounds a year and then the whole so-called surplus stock would be used up in about 10 years (there are genuinely billions of rounds out there) *1. After that, maybe the SANDF will have a couple skerpskieters with silver balkies and a handful more with bronze balkies; so the next time they attack the independent Kingdom of Lesotho they will come out with something more than tails between their legs. As a bonus to the overall efficacy of the SANDF, the troops can waddle from the 50 metre mark to the 100 metre mark and back a few times per week and thereby lose a couple of kilos off those barrel bellies. Some of them might then be able to make it through the hatch of an Olifant 1A battle tank.

It just does not make sense destroying billions of rounds of useful rifle ammunition, unless Pretoria Metal Pressings (PMP), a division of Denel, needs further orders from the taxpayers to make more of the same.

Something is highly fragrant in the state of Denmark.


*1      Although alot of the ammo is 7,62 mm calibre, there must surely still be enough target-shooting R1s out there for training purposes. Also the standard infantry squad weapon is normally a light machine gun of 7,62 mm calibre, as are many of the vehicle-mounted light machine guns.