South Africa Moves to End Deadlock Over Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE by Amending Legislation

The sales of arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE have traditionally accounted for at least a third of South Africa’s weapons exports. However, following the introduction of a requirement that foreign customers of Johannesburg’s arms should be subject to inspections by country’s officials, sales to Arab nations were stalled.

South African officials are currently seeking to amend legislation demanding that foreign buyers of its weapons allow government inspections at their facilities, Reuters reported, citing the head of the secretariat of South Africa’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC). The requirement, which is contained in an end-user certificate document, was objected to by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), leading to a stalemate in sales worth billions of dollars.  

“I can confirm that the amendment of the end-user certificate was approved by the NCACC recently”, the head of the organisation, Ezra Jele, said.

Reuters has also cited