SA accused of hypocrisy for exporting arms to military juntas and violators of human rights

The South African government has been accused of breaking its own laws and violating its commitments to “silencing the guns”, by selling arms to military juntas or states which are committing human rights abuses. 

South Africa is selling arms to the African countries of Mali, Guinea, Gabon and Burkina Faso – all which are controlled by military governments which seized power in coups – and to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which have been accused by the United Nations of human rights abuses, according to the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) in a report published on Tuesday, 21 October 2025.

The report – The Hypocrisy of South Africa’s Arms Exports – by the centre’s Atilla Kisla, says that these arms exports by South Africa are “not aligned with its political claims, regulatory frameworks and latest jurisprudence”.

It notes: “South Africa has built much of its post-apartheid identity around being a champion of human rights, peace and democracy – both in Africa and on the world stage. 

“From ‘silencing the guns’ in Africa to standing up for international law at the United Nations, its official rhetoric consistently promotes peace over violence,” the report says. 

And yet “it authorises arms exports to governments engaged in… repression and war”.

Blind eye

Kisla notes that “every bullet, tank or missile that leaves South African soil… is supposed to pass through the watchful eyes of… the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) – the official gatekeeper of South Africa’s arms exports.”

The NCACC is chaired by Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the minister in the Presidency, and also comprises six other Cabinet ministers and four deputy ministers.

Kisla notes that the NCACC’s governing legislation forbids it from authorising the sale of South African arms to countries where the arms could fuel repression, or be used to violate human rights or international humanitarian law; or if the recipient government is under military rule or is credibly accused of international crimes. 

Yet in late 2021 – even after a military junta seized full power in Myanmar – the NCACC still approved permits for arms exports to Myanmar, “directly contradicting South Africa’s stated foreign policy and its vote at the United Nations in favour of an arms embargo”.

The SALC brought a case against the NCACC over its approval of R215-million worth of arms sales to Myanmar between 2017 and 2021, a time when the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court had requested an investigation of the country and the International Court of Justice had issued provisional measures against Myanmar for alleged genocide against the Rohingya minority.

Kisla notes that in July 2024, the Gauteng High Court gave a landmark ruling in favour of the SALC. The court set aside the NCACC permits it had granted for arms sales to Myanmar and ruled that the NCACC was obliged under the law to suspend permits that allow arms transfers to states committing grave human rights violations, international crimes, or which had governments that had come to power through an unconstitutional  change of government – which includes military coups, as Myanmar had in February 2021.

Kisla says that NCACC reports from 2022 until June 2025 reveal that the NCACC continued to approve arms sales to several African countries even after they had undergone coups.

Sipho Mashaba, acting head of the NCACC Secretariat, said that under the National Conventional Arms Control Act, he could not disclose any information about the business of the NCACC without the committee’s permission, which he had not been granted.

Besides, he said, some countries (mentioned in the report) were “under judicial consideration” and so these cases could not be publicly discussed.

Mashaba appeared to be referring to the ongoing review case brought by SALC and Open Secrets to the High Court in 2021 seeking an order that the decisions by the NCACC to issue permits for arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE were unlawful.

Coups and combat vehicles

On 5 September 2021, Guinea’s President Alpha Condé was ousted in a military coup led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya. Both the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) suspended Guinea because of the coup. Yet Kisla says that in 2022 the NCACC approved the sale to Guinea of two armoured combat vehicles for a total of R26.1-million and in 2023 another two armoured combat vehicles, also for R26.1-million.

These sales were “particularly concerning because these are not defensive items… They are frontline vehicles designed for combat and crowd control. Both in 2022 and 2023 the country was ruled by the junta that arrested opposition members and banned demonstrations,” Kisla said. 

The report noted that Burkina Faso had experienced two military coups in January and October 2022, the first deposing President Roch Kaboré and the second bringing Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power . The AU and Ecowas suspended the country.

Yet, Kisla says, in 2023 the NCACC authorised the export of four armoured combat vehicles to Burkina Faso, valued at R40-million in total. It also permitted the export of “System, UAV and Aerospace” equipment worth R3.248-million. Kisla noted that in 2023 a military drone had killed 20 civilians in Burkina Faso. 

Kisla says the NCACC approved sales of R115.695-million to Gabon in the first half of 2023, just before the civilian government was toppled in a military coup in August 2023. That decision “showed how important a prospective risk analysis is”.

The arms exports to these military juntas had undermined South Africa’s credibility as a promoter of peace and democracy; had risked undermining public trust in South Africa’s arms control system; and had increased the risk South African weapons could be used to repress populations and worsen conflicts, Kisla says.

“South Africa must ensure that the NCACC suspends arms exports whenever coups occur, without exception… the guns must fall silent the moment the generals seize power.”

The NCACC reports also record that the NCACC authorised the sale of 19 armoured combat vehicles to Mali between 2022 and 2024.

That comprised two armoured combat vehicles valued at a total of R15-million to be supplied to the United Nations mission in Mali in 2022; two armoured combat vehicles valued at more than R15-million in total in 2023; and 15 armoured combat vehicles valued at a total of R140.6-million in 2024. In neither 2023 nor 2024 did the NCACC reports specify the armoured vehicles were for the UN.

But when the SALC asked the NCACC to explain why the number of armoured combat vehicles had been so high in 2024, the NCACC secretariat replied that the 2024 exports were supplied for the exclusive use of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (Minusma). But Kisla points out that the Minusma peacekeeping mission had officially concluded at the end of 2023.

He asked the NCACC why it would authorise arms for a mission that no longer existed “and where those weapons are now”. The NCACC did not reply. 

Arms for rights abusers

The SALC report also rebukes the NCACC for authorising extensive exports of South African arms, between 2020 and 2025, to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which have been accused by a UN Group of Eminent Experts of having committed international crimes, Kisla says. 

He says that, in its reports, this UN group had continuously accused the two countries of having committed violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes in the Yemen conflict. These alleged offences violated the NCACC’s criteria and should have prompted it to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the SALC says. 

“Since July 2024 this conduct not only appears to be in violation of the NCACC Act, but also openly appears to violate a binding High Court order secured by SALC in the Myanmar case,” the SALC report says.

It cites the July 2024 Gauteng High Court ruling in the Myanmar case that the NCACC was obliged to suspend the authorisation of arms exports to a country that “is reasonably suspected by a special rapporteur, independent expert or other person working in terms of a UN mandate, of having committed any crime against humanity, war crime or genocide”.

Yet the report notes that the NCACC continued to approve arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE both before and after this ruling; R614-million in arms to UAE and R12-million to Saudi Arabia in 2022; R87-million to the UAE and R81-million to Saudi Arabia in 2023; R254-million to the UAE and R71-million to Saudi Arabia in 2024; and R257-million to the UAE and R46-million to Saudi Arabia in 2025. 

Kisla says that despite the public UN evidence of their human rights abuses, South Africa continued to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE “on a scale that cemented both countries as key customers of its defence industry”.

“South Africa is drifting from the rule of law into a system of selective compliance, where foreign policy expedience seemingly trumps statutory and judicial obligations,” Kisla concludes.

He also warns South African arms companies that they cannot hide behind NCACC permits as they could be held legally responsible for arms sales even if NCACC permits were granted. DM

This article was updated on 22 October 2025 to include comments from Sipho Mashaba, acting head of the NCACC Secretariat.