South African Weapons to Russia ‘Possible but Doubtful,’ Say Arms Control Experts

A member of the South African Defence Force holds a MK1S grenade launcher manufactured by Milkor, a South African manufacturer, during the Africa Aerospace and Defence Expo on September 20, 2018, at the Waterkloof Air Force base, on the outskirts of Pretoria. (Photo by WIKUS DE WET / AFP) Photo credit should read WIKUS DE WET/AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG—Several weapons experts with knowledge of the international arms industry have told The Epoch Times it’s “highly unlikely” that South Africa secretly exported weapons or ammunition to Russia.

On 11 May, at a press conference in Pretoria, United States ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety made headlines around the world when he said: “The arming of Russia, by South Africa, with the vessel that landed in Simon’s Town, is fundamentally unacceptable.

“We are confident that weapons were loaded onto that vessel and I would bet my life on the accuracy of that assertion.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa immediately denied the allegation, and pledged to establish an independent inquiry to investigate the ambassador’s claims.

A member of the South African Defence Force looks at the Mts-116M sniper rifle manufactured by Russia's JSC Konstruktorskoe Buro Priborostroeniya (KBP) during the Africa Aerospace and Defence Expo on Sept. 20, 2018, at South Africa's Waterkloof Air Force base, on the outskirts of Pretoria. Wikus De Wet/AFP via Getty Images

Brigety has apologized for “not following correct channels” in making his allegation, but has not retracted it.

According to U.S. intelligence reports, the Russian ship Lady R was loaded with weapons and ammunition between Dec. 6 and Dec. 8 at the Simon’s Town naval base near Cape Town.

In May 2022, the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control added the Lady R to its sanctions list for alleged weapons shipments, along with several other Russian cargo vessels allegedly being used for President Vladimir Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.

Brigety’s allegations fed into a growing international perception that South Africa is firmly aligned with Russia, although it insists it is “neutral” in the conflict.

The governing African National Congress (ANC) has strong historic ties with Moscow, dating back to the 1960s when the former Soviet Union began supplying weapons and money to it for its armed struggle against apartheid.

Many of the ANC’s former and current cabinet ministers and other top officials studied and received military training in the USSR.

South Africa and Russia are allies in the BRICS economic bloc, which also includes Brazil, China and India.

In March last year, South Africa abstained from voting for a United Nations resolution condemning Putin’s invasion. Since the war began, Pretoria has allowed several sanctioned Russian vessels and aircraft to dock at its ports and land at its military bases.

In February, the South African, Chinese and Russian navies participated in a 10-day joint military exercise along South Africa’s east coast. Shortly thereafter Pretoria declined to take part in American-led naval training.

South African National Defence Force soldiers walk past the frigate SAS Mendi docked at the port in Richards Bay on Feb. 22, 2023. Guillem Sartorio/AFP via Getty Images

In recent months, senior South African state officials, including Defense Minister Thandi Modise, have been keynote speakers at “security conferences” in Russia.

Last week, as the storm around Brigety’s comments was raging, the ANC dispatched its top army general to Moscow to meet with the chief of the Russian infantry.

A statement that followed said Lieutenant-General Lawrence Mbatha and General Oleg Salyukov, the “commander of Russia’s ground forces,” had discussed “military cooperation” and “combat readiness.”

Professor Guy Lamb, a criminologist and political scientist at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, told The Epoch Times “although the optics don’t look good” for Pretoria, he doubts the Ramaphosa administration provided “war material” to Russia.

“Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No. A significant arms transaction between South Africa and Russia would’ve required a number of implausible things to happen. A long list of procurement procedures would have to be flouted and ministers bypassed. It would’ve needed corruption on a grand and sophisticated scale,” said Lamb.

“But all this is beside the point when one considers that South Africa doesn’t have a massive arms manufacturing capacity anymore, like it did during apartheid. So what could we offer the Kremlin that could help it in a significant way in Ukraine?”

Lamb is a former arms trafficking investigator for the UN, and has spent decades researching the global arms trade and arms control.

Arms Industry Glory Days Gone

From the early 1960s to late 1980s the apartheid government fought border wars against communist guerilla armies from several neighboring states, and also battled the ANC’s Soviet-trained fighters internally.

South African military analyst Helmoed Heitmann told The Epoch Times: “International isolation and sanctions forced the apartheid government to build one of the most formidable arms industries in the world.

“It was small when compared with big powers like the United States, but it made up for this in terms of innovation.

“The apartheid government couldn’t import what it needed to fight all these internal and external threats, so it was forced to invent its own weapons systems and ammunition. It even built several nuclear bombs, one of the few countries ever to have done so.”

Examples of apartheid-era military innovations used around the world include the Rooivalk (Red Falcon) attack helicopter and Cheetah fighter plane, which later became the blueprint for Sweden’s much-admired Gripen fighter aircraft.

South African weapons experts also designed the R4 and R5 assault rifles to rival the firepower of Russia’s AK-47, the weapon of choice for ANC guerillas.

But South Africa’s defense budget has declined remarkably since 1994, and is now less than 1 percent of GDP against the international average of 2 percent.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at a joint press conference during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept. 4, 2018. Lintao Zhang/AFP/Getty Images

Africa’s leading military news website, DefenceWeb, said the domestic arms industry was now “largely exporting to survive and continues to develop world class defense equipment. There are a number of local companies that have developed or started to develop many cutting-edge and world-leading products and systems, but in many cases been forced to abandon them or put them on hold due to funding restrictions.”

Documentation from South Africa’s ministry of defense says the Lady R docked in Simon’s Town to deliver five-million rounds of ammunition for the army’s Special Forces. A report from the state’s Arms Control Committee reflects that the ammunition was ordered in 2019.

Russia is the second-largest exporter of arms in the world and South Africa is a long-time client.

“Why would Russia deliver millions of rounds of ammunition to South Africa and then take back ammunition from us, to Ukraine?” Lamb asked.

No permit approval for arms orders from Russia appears in recent export reports of South Africa’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), other than for “electronic observation equipment.”

The ANC has been mired in corruption since it came to power in 1994. Could a secret arms sale to Russia simply be part of that pattern?

If there was corruption, said Lamb, it would have to have involved South Africa’s entire NCACC, which consists of a broad spectrum of cabinet ministers.

The ANC established this committee shortly after it came to power in 1994 to symbolize its break from the apartheid past, when the National Party government had armed states the ANC considered to be “enemies,” most notably Israel.

It pledged to tighten arms export controls to prevent South African weapons being used by governments that violate human rights, engage in civil wars, or pursue aggression against other countries.

“The Committee includes the ministers of trade and industry and finance and they would have immediately objected to any arms export to Russia, on the basis that that could result in South Africa’s defense industry being sanctioned, and would have negative consequences for the country’s trade relations with Europe and the United States,” Lamb explained.

The US is South Africa’s second-largest export market after China.

Lamb said although it was possible that weapons and ammunition could have been loaded onto the Lady R illegally, he still doesn’t believe it happened.

“Those involved would’ve had to pay bribes to scores of officials at the docks, with no guarantee that one of more would later spill the beans. Fraudulent export documentation would’ve had to have been drawn up. Then, in my experience, illegal arms transactions usually happen at busy container ports, where things can happen covertly.”

What Would Russians Want? 

South Africa’s state-owned arms manufacturing company is Denel SOC.

It and its subsidiaries manufacture attack helicopters, cruise missiles, air defense missiles, anti-tank guided missiles and glide bombs.

Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher of the arms transfers program, at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, told The Epoch Times South Africa’s arms industry had recently made “advances” in a few “niche areas,” such as certain light armored vehicles and anti-tank missiles.

“There’s demand for South African combat systems, assault rifles and other military equipment from many countries, including from the United States, China, European nations like Finland, and all over Africa, especially,” said Wezeman.

Denel also makes the NTW-20 anti-material rifle.

The Military Africa group, which monitors arms manufacturing and use on the continent and elsewhere, described the weapon as “attracting a lot of interest globally” and designed to “engage high-value targets such as radar stations, petrol tankers, static helicopters and planes, and command and control stations.

“It serves as an accurate long-range portable rifle which can be carried by a sniper and can also be mounted on light vehicles. While it is not seen as a traditional sniper rifle, a version of this gun [Denel NTW-14.5] is credited with a 2,125m kill by a South African Special Forces sniper.”

One of Denel’s subsidiaries is majority-owned by German company, Rheinmetall.

According to its website, it “specializes in the development, design and manufacture of large and medium-caliber ammunition,” and is “a world leader in the field of artillery, mortar, and infantry systems.”

Its G6 howitzer with a 52-calibre gun is capable of firing a conventional 155 mm artillery round almost 50 miles, the furthest yet recorded by a weapon in this class.

Rheinmetall Denel also manufactures artillery and mortar ammunition and missile subsystems, including warheads.

The company is adamant it sells its products to “mostly NATO countries.”

The Armaments Corporation of South Africa (ARMSCOR), the arms procurement agency of the South African Department of Defense, acknowledges a “strategic partnership” with Rosoboronexport, Moscow’s state arms export corporation.

A corporation official who asked not to be named told The Epoch Times: “ARMSCOR repairs Russian-built equipment for several African militaries, in collaboration with Rosoboronexport. We are also working together on projects aimed at combining Russian and South African systems in weapons for export.”

As an example, he pointed to South African made “multi-sensor warning systems” currently being used in Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKM fighter jets.

Arms to Repressive Regimes?

The ANC government began breaking its promises not to supply weapons to regimes allegedly guilty of human rights violations as early as 1997, when it exported arms to Rwanda, in contravention of a UN embargo prohibiting sales to countries in civil conflict.

In 2010, South African companies sold “sniper rifles” to the Libyan regime, as confirmed by the NCACC in 2011, and also provided military equipment to Iran and Syria.

According to NCACC reports, in 2016 and 2017 South Africa supplied arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, when the two countries led a coalition to restore ousted leader of Yemen, President Mansur Hadi, to power.

Human rights groups accused the coalition of killing thousands of civilians, mostly in “indiscriminate airstrikes.”

The NCACC reports of 2016 and 2017 confirmed South Africa had provided 1,600 guided missiles to the UAE, for use in the country’s Mirage jets active in Yemen.

South Africa also sold heavy artillery guns, assault rifles, ammunition, armored vehicles, and surveillance equipment to the Saudi-led coalition.

Brigety’s allegations that Pretoria has provided weapons to Russia have ratcheted up the tension between Pretoria and Washington, largely based on overt support in the ANC for Putin.

A delegation from the South African government recently visited the Capitol, to ask U.S. lawmakers not to exclude their country from the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

This gives South Africa duty-free access to American markets for a range of products, including motor vehicles, wine and fruit, earning it billions of rands in revenue.

Lamb called on Washington to declassify the intelligence reports on which Brigety’s allegations are apparently based.

“Intelligence always needs to be challenged and scrutinized. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on an intelligence report that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and that proved to be fraudulent. The report saying South Africa provided something to Russia might be accurate, it might not.

“But even if one U.S. congressman bases his decision to vote South Africa out of AGOA on a report that turns out to be erroneous, that would be very unfair.”

Lamb said Brigety would not have gone public with such serious allegations without getting the go-ahead from Washington.

“So, it’s clear that the US government believes the intelligence it gathered is valid. That’s all the more reason to interrogate it, so that the South African people can hold their own government to account if it is indeed selling arms to someone like Vladimir Putin.”