A clause in export documents requires foreign customers to pledge not to transfer weapons to third parties and to allow SA officials to inspect their facilities to verify compliance
A Denel G-6 howitzer tank. Picture: BUSINESS DAY
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates , which account for at least a third of SA’s arms exports and are engaged in a war in Yemen, have rejected the inspections, which they consider a violation of their sovereignty, the sources said. “We’ve got one clause that’s disabling us from exporting R25bn worth of value today, right now,” Simphiwe Hamilton, the head of the AMD, told Reuters.
In February, Amnesty International accused the UAE of diverting arms supplied by Western and other states to militias accused of war crimes in Yemen. In the same month, a CNN investigation said Saudi Arabia and the UAE had transferred American weapons to Yemeni fighters, breaking the terms of their arms sales with the US.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone represented a third of SA’s R4.7bn of authorised arms exports in 2018, according to data compiled by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee , a group of ministers and deputy ministers that approves the exports. The clause requires customers to grant “access and permission to SA government authority’s representative” to verify they are in compliance with SA’s defence export regulations.
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