South African-made artillery: A Denel G6-45 155 mm howitzer. (Photo Courtesy DanieVDM)

The National Conventional Arms Control Committee faces a crisis of credibility with its functioning and conduct apparently in violation of ANC government's own enabling legislation governing arms dealing.

These are some of the facts the government has been trying to hide:

• There are claims that for well over a year the NCACC, the government body that oversees South Africa's arms trade, effectively did not function as it should have in terms of vetting arms sales.

• The committee's last four annual reports have been kept hidden from public scrutiny and loosely termed "classified", although the law requires these documents to be delivered to Parliament's defence committee annually and made public.

• The 2005 annual report, which has been seen by Weekend Argus, records a "temporary export" of arms to troubled Zimbabwe. The weapons fall into the category of material that "could cause heavy personnel casualties", according to government documents. It is unclear whether the exports were components, spares or whole units. The government has refused to answer questions about this export.

The NCACC is supposed to vet whether weapons for a particular country are likely to be used against its own citizens or whether they are likely to be used to inflame regional conflicts.

Weekend Argus has seen reports, which the government has failed to make public, that detail South Africa's arms trade in 2005 and 2006 - including the "temporary export" of arms to Zimbabwe. At the time, Zimbabwe was in a state of virtual civil war, with the security forces routinely unleashed against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The weapons sent to Zimbabwe were in a category that included "major conventional implements of war that could cause heavy personnel casualties."

Examples included "fighter aircraft, submarines, explosives, missiles, bombs, artillery guns (and) tanks".

Yesterday, Tlali Tlali, spokesman for NCACC chairman Jeff Radebe, did not respond to queries - including whether these arms had been returned to South Africa.

A defence expert has raised the possibility that the weapons could have been on offer to international buyers, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at an international arms exposition in Zimbabwe.

Noel Stott, of the Institute for Security Studies, said although he was not aware of an arms sale in Zimbabwe, "I can't picture why a particular country would have an expo just for its own defence force and military".

"Any country could be a potential buyer," he added.

In 2005 an Amnesty International report "DR Congo: arming the east" said "The DRC has used sympathetic neighbours in the region for arms procurement".

A UN report on repression in 2005 accused Zimbabwe of "an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering, and, in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions of national and international legal frameworks."

Though the South African government has refused to divulge details of what weapons and/or ammunition were made available to the Zimbabweans, the 2005 deal is only one of several.

Earlier this year, the Mail & Guardian indicated that assault rifles as well as 9mm handguns had been sold by South African interests to the Zimbabwean security forces.

Last year, a furore erupted when news broke of a permit issued by the NCACC to allow a Chinese ship to convey weapons to Zimbabwe via South Africa. However, a court order prevented the ship unloading of its cargo. Whether the arms ever got to Zimbabwe via another African state remains unclear.

In December last year, UN experts reported on deliveries of ammunition made from the DRC to Zimbabwe. On whether these originated from China, Jason Stearns, a member of the expert panel said: "It's possible, but we have no clues."

DA MP Dr Wilmot James, who recently authored a report on a fact-finding trip to Zimbabwe, described the latest revelations as "really alarming".

"I would have thought the committee would have exercised a bit more care."

James expressed concern about the possibility of additional unreported arms exports to Zimbabwe, saying "it sounds like there has been a pattern".

Human Rights lobby group Freedom House, which ranked Zimbabwe "not free" last year, raised concerns that Zimbabwean forces "abuse citizens with impunity".

The latest revelations come as the British government has effectively warned South Africa against providing Zimbabwe with weapons based on concerns of "internal repression".

Last week, the DA's defence spokesman David Maynier called on Radebe to "investigate the arms deals that have been authorised by the committee in respect of Libya, Syria and Venezuela", and to a deal with Zimbabwe currently pending authorisation.

The Helen Suzman Foundation last week called on Parliament to probe the allegations about "dodgy" arms deals. It said it was concerned that ongoing armaments industry allegations continued to bedevil public life, eroding and undermining citizens' trust.

Weekend Argus has also learned that for well over a year the NCACC largely ceased to function. In the aftermath of political bloodletting at the ANC's 2007 conference at Polokwane, the committee apparently existed only in name until early this year.

According to well-placed sources, authorisations for weapons trading were then given under the signature of a functionary in the Department of Defence - acting Defence Secretary Tsepe Motumi, the Defence Ministry's deputy director general for policy planning and strategy.

This came after NCACC chairman and former government minister Sydney Mufamadi delegated his committee's responsibilities.

Shortly before this, an investigation by the consultancy First Consulting uncovered irregularities in the weapons trade serious enough to call for the suspension of several top officials and the cancellation and rescinding of several deals. The report was later suppressed by the Secretariat of Defence.

Earlier this month, Radebe, chairman of the committee, admitted in response to allegations made by Maynier that the NCACC had developed a "special mechanism" by which the chairperson or deputy chairperson could consider "urgent matters" and "take any such decision they deem appropriate within confines of the (law)".

However, the law states "four of the members, who must include the chairperson or deputy chairperson of the committee, constitute a quorum".

Mufamadi would not therefore have had the power to delegate responsibility to Motumi under the "special measures".

Over one week ago, Weekend Argus put written questions to Radebe's spokesman, Tlali Tlali, including "on what advice the 'special mechanism' was developed and how many decisions were taken under this 'mechanism'."

Tlali refused to address the questions, saying: "I really do not want to have my fingers burned." He referred queries to the Defence Ministry's director of arms control, Dumisani Dladla, who refused to answer.

However, Radebe has defended allegations over the committee's recent operations, citing "sound international relations principles".

Radebe said since the new committee took office on July 21 it had met twice and concluded deals worth R8.1 billion.

Radebe confirmed that the committee was considering authorising the sale of ammunition to Zimbabwe, because there was no existing resolution from the UN Security Council on arms sales to Zimbabwe.

But a spokesman for the British High Commission in Pretoria said although there was no such resolution preventing arms sales to Zimbabwe, members of the EU have imposed sanctions against that country.

"The EU banned the sale of arms to Zimbabwe in 1997 because of their involvement in the DRC. In 2002 an arms embargo was included in the EU Common Position that was introduced in response to the internal situation in Zimbabwe.

"The UK fully supports these sanctions, believing they should be lifted only after the new administration has demonstrated its commitment to reform."

Yesterday former chairman of the NCACC Kader Asmal said he had raised questions with President Jacob Zuma about the committee's activities. He said: "I have no knowledge of what the procedure has been since I left in 2003."

Additional reporting by staff reporters.