# Bureaucratic bottleneck ties down South Africa’s arms export

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2022/12/bureaucratic-bottleneck-ties-down-south-africas-arms-export/
- Published: 2022-12-07T12:36:32+01:00
- Author: Sarah Lesedi

Arms sales bureaucracy is delaying the export of South Africa’s weaponry worth R2.85
billion to customers across the world.

Militaries of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, [Turkey](https://www.military.africa/2020/05/south-africa-ships-large-arms-to-turkey/),
and Poland would have to wait a little longer for their equipment pending when export
permits are issued.

This was revealed by Ezra Jele, Head of Secretariat of the National Conventional
Arms Control Committee, on 24 November during a briefing of the Joint Standing Committee
on Defence (JSCD) on the NCACC’s third quarter report, [_defenceWeb_ reports](https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/billions-of-rands-worth-of-sa-defence-exports-on-hold/).

According to _defenceWeb_, Ezra Jele said between July and September 2022, a total
of 152 munitions export permits were authorised to 41 countries with a value of 
R818 million. A total of 43 export permits to 16 countries were approved, with a
value of R137 million. For the third quarter of 2022, 82 import permits were authorised
from 17 countries, amounting to R25 million.

Three permits for Saudi Arabia with business value of R505 million, three permits
for the United Arab Emirates with value R1.45 billion, three permits for Turkey 
with value R20 million, and one permit for Poland with value of R893 million.

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Moreso, nine export permits worth R37 million to Saudi Arabia, along with 59 permits
worth R2.9 billion to the United Arab Emirates, and 18 permits worth R2 billion 
to Turkey.

The cause of the delays to approve Turkey and Poland’s permits may be linked to 
fears that the weaponry and components will be diverted to Ukraine.

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Also, [four German government-sponsored Puma M36 armoured ambulances for Burkina Faso](https://www.military.africa/2021/03/ott-technologies-and-pae-to-supply-puma-armoured-vehicle-to-burkina-faso/),
and body armour for Mali is also on hold.

These development highlights the damaging effects of the slow pace of export permit
processing on the floundering South African defence industry.

> [South Africa: An Industry in Trouble](https://www.military.africa/2019/12/an-industry-in-trouble/)

The National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) which handles these process
have been criticized by industry practitioners for being slow in their operating
procedures.

[Declining local defence budget](https://www.military.africa/2019/06/south-africa-lack-of-domestic-defence-spending-fuels-export-ambitions/)
is cited as one of the challenge delaying the NCACC from issuing new export permits.

A diplomatic row occurred in 2019, when the NCACC insisted that it be allowed to
inspect customers’ facilities to verify compliance and that they must sign end user
certificates (EUCs) in which they pledge not to sell their weapons on to third parties.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates rejected the inspections demand, stating
that they considered it a violation of their sovereignty, whilst Oman and Algeria
also refused inspections and blocked arms imports.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates accounts for at least a third of South
Africa’s arms exports.

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The issue was resolved two years later, but R2 billion in sales potential were aready
lost.

In 2014 South Africa exported arms worth R2.98 billion, compared to R3.2 billion
the year before and R10.6 billion in 2012, according to the NCACC’s 2014 annual 
report.

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