Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

In revelations that could further damage SA's [South Africa] international reputation, a top-secret forensic investigation has shown that defence procurement agency Armscor has been selling hundreds of millions of rounds of surplus small arms ammunition into the open market in conflict with government policy.

South Africa has for years been seen as a leader in the crackdown on small arms proliferation, particularly after its voluntary destruction of all land mine stocks and a 1997 cabinet decision to destroy all surplus small arms ammunition.

The revelations of the ammunition sales follow hard on the heels of SA's much-criticised foreign policy positions on Burma and Zimbabwe as well as ongoing allegations of corruption in the arms deal.

The November 2005 forensic report by First Consulting, hired by defence secretary January Masilela after reports of allegations of irregularities at Armscor, also reveals a breach of national security in the export of Ratel infantry assault vehicles with top-secret codes and algorithms in place when radios should have been removed from the vehicles before export. Armscor CEO Sipho Thomo and two other officials were suspended over the Ratel affair but have since been reinstated.

The sale of millions of rounds of 7,62mm and 5,56mm (for AK-47 and R-4 and R-5 rifles) to Industrie Spreewerk Lubben (ISL) in Germany, ostensibly for destruction and onward sale to companies in the US, has seen the US market flooded with military and police surplus ammunition from South Africa. Apparently the ammunition is openly advertised on the internet.

The report contains a litany of allegations over Armscor officials exporting the ammunition on the basis of expired end-user certificates for Guyana and of authorisation for re-export being given by Armscor officials bypassing the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

The top secret report, of which Business Day has a copy, has been circulated to only two people, Masilela himself and Gen J Ledwaba, the head of the Military Police Agency.

In all, there were eight exports of ammunition to Germany from 1998-2000. The original rationale was that ISL would "demilitarise" the ammunition but the end-user certificate was changed to allow the re-export of the ammunition.

First Consulting rep-orted that notwithstanding a cabinet decision in 1997 that surplus ammunition should be destroyed, " Armscor continued to sell surplus ammunition in the open overseas market".

The cabinet decision allowed government-to-government sales but the sales by Armscor were to private companies.

"In conclusion, the contracting permit application was made with an intention to mislead the NCACC to approve the permit without revealing all relevant factors with regard to the demilitarisation and re-export of surplus South African National Defence Force (SANDF) ammunition.

"An authorisation to re-export surplus SANDF ammunition "as is" was later sent to the German authorities by an Armscor official," the report says.

The allegation of surplus SANDF ammunition flooding into the USA led to the NCACC calling for an investigation.

"Our investigation revealed that regulatory and procedural processes were blatantly violated.

" It is proposed that the present staff and members of the committees be re-evaluated, educated and vetted.

"Further, those who in any way are guilty of any indiscretion or criminal liability must face the full wrath of the criminal justice system."

At time of going to press Armscor was considering a response.