AfriForum wins court order to prevent delivery of helicopters to Zimbabwe
An urgent interim court order was awarded to AfriForum late this afternoon by the North Gauteng High Court to prevent delivery of Alouette III Air Force helicopters by the South African National Defence Force to the Zimbabwean army. The interim order shall stand pending the finalisation of the main application by 19 February 2013.
AfriForum issued an urgent application to the court today after the news about the donation to the Zimbabwean government broke.
Legal representatives for AfriForum have presented letters last week to the Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, as well as the Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe, who is also Chairperson of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, after rumours surfaced that the SANDF had decided to donate its entire fleet of used Alouette helicopters to Zimbabwe.
The Ministers were given seven days to react to the letters, but no reaction had been received by close of business yesterday.
While the Ministers declined to react to the letters delivered to their respective offices on 17 January 2013, their spokespersons did confirm to Mail & Guardian that arrangements for the delivery of the helicopters had been finalised and that the delivery would take place shortly.