South African Opposition Enter the Fray About Zimbabwe Arms Shipment

Reports of a shipment of arms in South African waters, allegedly destined for Zimbabwe, has sparked a political outcry, with parties calling on the government to block the consignment to Zimbabwe’s army.

The South African Defence Secretary, January Masilela, who chairs the Scrutiny Committee of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC, said on Thursday that there was nothing wrong with the “conveyance” of a Chinese consignment of arms to Zimbabwe. He said the consignment was a “simple” transaction between China and Zimbabwe.

Masilela added that South Africa had no jurisdiction over sovereign states which bought arms from each other. He said the Zimbabwean government had applied for a conveyance permit with his department and there was “no problem” in issuing it.

“As far as we are concerned, the consignment is within international laws since there are no embargoes on Zimbabwe on any list of the African Union, SADC (Southern African Development Community), EU, US, or the UN.”

He rebuffed political parties’ calls for the South African authorities to stop the consignment and said he was “strictly” adhering to international standards. “We work on a legal regime. We are not aware of any resolution against the government of Zimbabwe. This is a normal thing, a normal conveyance that was dealt with at a lower level,” said Masilela.

The national spokesperson on defense for the opposition Democratic Alliance, Rafeek Shah called on the government on Thursday to intervene and prevent the delivery of the weapons.

“It is imperative that action is taken to ensure that these weapons are not allowed to destabilize what is already a precarious situation in Zimbabwe,” he said.

The spokesman of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Musa Zondi said the party condemned Zimbabwe’s purchase of arms at a time when its people were living in poverty.

The spokesman if the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Patrick Craven said: “We are going to discuss this and see if there’s any action we can take. I don’t want to pre-empt any decision.”

The ruling party was however more cautious, saying it was “clueless” about the shipment and needed to have the facts before commenting.

Source African Press Agency

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