Defence department dogged by delays, old systems and outdated laws

SA’s struggling arms industry has seen a revival in the past two years; however, it is reliant on the timely approval of export permits by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

Last year the committee did not meet for almost seven months as it had to be reconstituted by President Cyril Ramaphosa after the elections. The new committee was finally announced in late October with minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni as chair and Andries Nel, deputy justice and constitutional development minister, her deputy.

This committee had its first meeting in December and is meant to meet monthly. According to industry sources that was the first and last meeting until now. The directorate of conventional arms control and its secretariat only has the delegation to approve certain new applications of contractors and contracts, but the NCACC needs to approve extensions and amendments to existing contracting permits for additional exports.

Delays can amount to hundreds of thousands of rand and arms manufacturers can even be slapped with contract noncompliance fines in certain instances.

During a Joint Standing Committee on Defence meeting on November 15, the SA Aerospace Maritime Defence Industries Association highlighted concerns about outdated legislation, last reviewed in 2012, which has led to export contract cancellations, production losses and job cuts, MP Chris Hattingh told Business Day.

Two DA MPs — Hattingh and Nicholas Gotsell, who also serve on the Joint Standing Committee on Defence — were marched out of Defence Headquarters in the Armscor building in Pretoria this week, after they breached access control to conduct an unannounced oversight visit.

According to the two MPs, there were serious concerns about regulatory challenges at the directorate, which is severely affecting the local arms industry.

Hattingh and Gotsell entered the normally highly secured building on Tuesday and made it to the directorate of conventional arms control, where they wanted to gain on-site information regarding administrative issues.

The MPs caused consternation when they arrived at the offices of the directorate. After more than an hour, the acting director of the directorate, Peter Mashaba, arrived with defence chief Gen Rudzani Maphwanya.

“General Maphwanya initially stated that he was present in his capacity as a representative of the SANDF, a client of Armscor. When questioned on it, he then claimed to be acting as a member of the Council on Defence,” Hattingh said.

“He proceeded to question the MPs on how they gained access to the building, stating that his investigation showed no record of their entry. He appeared to be less concerned about how his first line of defence against accountability has failed rather than the fact that the MPs could walk undetected into the holy grail of the defence department’s headquarters,” Hattingh said.

Maphwanya told the MPs that their visit, which they said was part of their duties in overseeing issues within the arms regulator to promote the industry’s prosperity, had to first be approved by defence and military veterans minister Angie Motshekga.

“He instructed Mr Mashaba not to engage with us and told Mashaba he was free to leave the building if he still wished to engage with us. As Maphwanya was departing, Mashaba stated that he had received a phone call from minister Ntshavheni, instructing Mashaba not to meet the MPs,” Hattingh said.

It is worrying that the ANC is blocking oversight over critical defence-related issues.

—  Chris Hattingh, DA MP

“It is worrying that the ANC is blocking oversight over critical defence-related issues. First the co-chairpersons of the joint standing committee on defence prohibited members from exercising their oversight right when they protected minister Motshekga from answering questions when she appeared before the defence committee on February 4. Now minister Ntshaveni simply issues a decree, which prohibited Chris and me from doing our job. What happened to the capable, ethical state President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated in his state of the nation address?” Gotsell told Business Day.

Business Day’s requests for comment from Motshekga were referred to Ntshavheni’s office. Ntshavheni, through her spokesperson, Sipho Mbele, did not respond.

Apart from outdated regulatory challenges, it has been reported that the directorate has been struggling with an extremely outdated computerised database, which crashes regularly. Only one, aged computer in the directorate can be used to access the database of all arms applications, the dates thereof and the progress and status of applications.

The database dates back to the inception of the directorate and committee after 1994. Mashaba was previously quoted saying the directorate was dependent on the State Information Technology Agency (Sita), which consolidates and co-ordinates the state’s IT resources to provide or procure new computer systems. A new system has to be compatible with the existing database and a new computer program.