In the past week, Open Secrets has challenged both the South African Presidency and the US government to make public details of the mysterious cargo of the Russian vessel Lady R which docked in Simon's Town in December 2022. The public has the right to know if arms were loaded on to the Lady R and who will use these.

Arms have always been the Achilles' heel of the powerful in South Africa. During apartheid, they were the lifeblood of the regime. In the first years of democracy in SA, an arms deal with European powers thoroughly corrupted our politics and paved the way for State Capture and what followed. Nearly every major arms transaction in South Africa has been mired in scandal and cover-ups.

A bloody business

As recent Open Secrets investigations show, arms deals are also mired in murder, including that of innocent civilians in the Rwandan genocide where a South African arms dealer, Ters Ehlers, facilitated an arms deal with a bloody legacy.

In the past decade, weapons manufactured in South Africa have been used to target civilians in a bloody war in Yemen. Our investigations show a direct correlation between a rising body count in that country and an international order book of weapons from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These weapons have been supplied by many countries seeking to profit from misery, including South Africa and Nato member states like the US and the UK.

It is therefore fair for South Africans to be circumspect about the claim and counter-claims concerning...