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The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the National Conventional Arms Control Committee's latest annual report raises questions about more possible "dodgy arms deals" in South Africa.

The NCACC's 2009 annual report reveals that two important arms deals, exposed last year during our party's "dodgy arms deals" exposé were stopped, including:

the attempt to export thousands of 7.62mm sniper rifles to Syria; and
the attempt to export millions of rounds of 9mm and 7.62 mm rounds of ammunition to Zimbabwe

The NCACC deserves credit for stepping up and doing the right thing by refusing to authorise these arms deals.

However, the NCACC's annual report - which covers the period 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009 - raises important questions including:

Whether the R2.3 million worth of conventional weapons - including R1.7 million worth of "Category D" weapons which include riot control products such as tear gas - that were exported to Madagascar, were used during the coup which took place on or about 16 March 2009;
Why more than half of the states we exported conventional weapons to were considered to be either "Partly Free" or, even worse, "Not Free" in terms of political rights and civil liberties, by Freedom House, when the committee are required to take into account human rights standards before authorising arms export permits; and
Whether a massive new arms deal has been signed which would explain the increase in "total contract value approved" from R19.5 billion in 2008 to R82.5 billion in 2009? If so, what is the name of the importing state and what type of conventional weapons are being sold?

The NCACC should be complimented for ensuring that this year's annual report was - for the first time in many years - submitted within the legislative deadline to Parliament.

The DA will raise these questions with NCACC chairperson Jeff Radebe when he appears before the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans on 5 May 2010 in Parliament.