South Africa's ruling party today brushed aside charges that it approved the sale of WMD-capable bombs to Libya and a number of other "dodgy" weapons exports, Reuters reported (see GSN, Aug. 4).
The African National Congress was responding to claims by an opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, that the nation's National Conventional Arms Control Committee last year authorized a deal to supply Libya with precision-guided glide bombs capable of carrying biological, chemical and nuclear warheads.
David Maynier, the Democratic Alliance's shadow defense minister, also said the committee allowed a South African firm to exhibit military equipment to North Korea and signed off on the export of grenade launchers to Syria. It has yet to approve additional shipments of sniper rifles to Syria and high-tech aviation suits for Iranian pilots, according to the opposition party.
The African National Congress said Maynier was distorting the truth.
"Maynier clearly does not want the facts to get in the way of a good story," the ruling party said in a statement. "The authenticity and/or legitimacy of his alleged sources is highly dubious. It is high time that the [Democratic Alliance] backed up its conspiracy theories with hard facts."
The statement added: "By presenting the media with such a poorly researched and factually empty 'report,' the DA has once again successfully sent the public on a wild goose chase and betrayed its opposition mandate."
While the Democratic Alliance described the deals as "dodgy," the ruling party said the committee granted its permissions via "legitimate processes" (Michael Georgy, Reuters, Aug. 6).