Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence has welcomed confirmation of South Africa’s continuing compliance with its international arms control commitments. It did so in a statement released on Friday.

The statement followed the committee’s reception of the latest reports from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC). These reports, for the third and fourth quarters of last year, covered all the transfers of ‘controlled items’.

“The achievement of a balance that takes into consideration international obligations, addressing proliferation concerns, preserving jobs within the arms industry as well as ensuring compliance to legislation remains one of the committee’s huge preoccupations,” it said in its statement. The committee also welcomed the opportunity to examine the NCACC reports and reassure itself about the work of that body.

In their statement the parliamentarians further observed that they had previously expressed concern about their lack of opportunity to interact with the NCACC. “Going forward, there is a recommitment to continuous engagements on the work of the NCACC,” they affirmed.   

The Joint Standing Committee also recognised the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the local defence industry. It hoped that the easing of the restrictions, imposed to try and contain the pandemic, would assist in the revival of the sector, protect jobs and aid the country’s economic growth.

The committee, which also covers military veterans' affairs, additionally addressed its attention to the report it has received on irregular expenditures in the Department of Military Veterans during the period from the 2013/14 financial year to the 2018/19 financial year. It expressed the view that “a lack of will” by senior departmental managers, including the accounting officer, had allowed the development of a “culture of impunity” within the department, leading to the disregard of the legislation and regulations covering expenditure by government entities.

“Despite this, the committee welcomes the establishment of the Financial Management Committee intended to speedily deal with cases of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” noted the statement. “Nonetheless, the committee is concerned that lack of capacity within the department is hampering the work of the Finance [sic] Management Committee as well as delaying investigations into allegations of fraud within the department.”

The committee was pleased with progress being made in cleaning up the database for military veterans, pointing out that this had been urged many times by it and its predecessor committees. However, it cautioned that it was still concerned by the fact that the process had not yet been brought to a conclusion.