Publication: Sapa Issued: Pretoria Date: 2008-01-17 Reporter: Sapa

Row Brews over Lohatla Shooting Report

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-DEFENCE-LOHATLA

Issued Pretoria
Date

2008-01-17
 


A row is brewing over a report on the military investigation into an incident last year in which nine soldiers were killed at Lohatla in the Northern Cape when an artillery gun apparently went haywire.

The report -- compiled by a board of inquiry which investigated the incident in which a computerised gun malfunctioned during a military exercise killing the nine soldiers and injuring 14 others -- has been completed but not made public.

On Thursday the Freedom Front Plus said Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, gave an undertaking in Parliament that the investigation would be transparent and that nothing would be hidden.

"Lekota cannot now decide not to release the report. Releasing the report is necessary in order for Parliaments' oversight role to be exercised.

"The public, furthermore, has a right to know what went wrong and what preventative steps will be taken to prevent a similar incident from happening again", said FF Plus spokesman Pieter Groenewald.

The report had been discussed with the families of dead and injured soldiers on Saturday, Lekota's spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said on Thursday.

Following these discussions the minister was waiting for an opening in his schedule to publicly talk about the outcome of the investigation. This would happen soon, Mkhwanazi said.

He said it was unlikely that the whole report would be released and could not say whether the findings would be made public.

It is believed that the military inquiry came to the same conclusion as that of a police investigation into the matter -- finding that the computerised gun had malfunctioned and that there had been no negligence.

Groenewald, however, said it was crucial that the whole report be released so that people could see how the inquiry came to its conclusion and if its deductions were correct.

"The current action of the minister creates the impression that he has something to hide. If it is possible for civil action to be instituted, there must have been negligence," he said.

His party plans submitting a question to Lekota through Parliament.

With acknowledgement to Sapa.


*1       My information indicates that there had to be negligence.

The end stops that should limit the gun to firing in a restricted arc could not have been fitted properly or at all.

The the gun traverses as far as an end stop, these cause the guns electrical and/or hydraulic system to disable the gun.

While gun gas-operated firing mechanism has a known intrinsic and potentially catastrophic failure mode, this is a very seldom occurrence and easily cured in a firing range or an exercise situation with end stops and procedural drill. In war one takes ones chances with a system that is less likely not to work when the firing mechanism is activated in anger and fear.

In any case, I categorically deny that I or my company had any whatsoever to do with the software that controlled these 35 mm Oerlikon-Contraves anti-aircraft guns.

My understanding is that this software and the fire control system was supplied by Oerlikon-Contraves.

The involvement that I and my company had with these 35 mm Oerlikon-Contraves anti-aircraft guns was in respect of an SA Army and Armscor research and project.project called Project Dart in the mid-1990s. My company successfully developed a Control and Display System (CDS) for Reutech ESR 200 Battlefield Surveillance Radar and EDR-120 Target Designation Radar. The CDS allows the set-up and operation of the radars. These radars pass target information to the Fire Control System and Fire Control Radar. The guns then slave themselves to the control of these two systems. The CDS has nothing whatsoever to do with the operation of either the guns or the Fire Control System. The guns are physically connected with a serial data link to the Fire Control System. In this case the Fire Control System, its software and its data link were developed by a company called Synertech a sister company of Teklogic which was part of the Altech Defence Systems (ADS) group of defence companies which latter became African Defence Systems (Pty) Ltd (also called ADS).

In any case Project Dart was completed as a technical demonstrator and disbanded somewhere in the mid-1990s, with the SA Army for some or other reason so far unexplained, preferring to acquire the upgrade and fully automated Mark V guns from Oerlikon-Contraves. What these use in respect of Battlefield Surveillance Radar, Target Designation Radar, Fire Control System and Fire Control Radar I really do not know.

Ask Lekota, ask the police, I do not know.