Quaker Peace Centre goes to court to overturn R35 billion in Arms Deal
Cape Town 22 May 2017
The Quaker Peace Centre (QPC) has instituted a claim against the South African government to cancel a component of the Arms Deal with British Aerospace [Operations] limited (BAe) and to recover some R35 billion for the beleaguered SA fiscus.
The claim which is based on the unconstitutionality and illegality of the component, concentrates on the biggest of the arms deals, that with BAe. In terms of this deal, Hawk and Gripen fighter jets were acquired at a cost of R35 billion [at 2015 currency exchange rates, including interest accrued and with provision for fluctuations in the value of the currency].
The BAe deal is not only the biggest but also the most discussed in the books and documents generated in the wake of the arms deals. Gripen fighter jets are manufactured in Sweden, however, in this instance BAe procured them for South Africa. The BAe transaction is assailed both because it is tainted by corruption, and because it is invalid for want of compliance with tender criteria laid down in the Constitution and because the loan taken to pay BAe was unauthorised.
BAe won the contract for the Hawk and Gripen fighter aircraft (in partnership with Swedish defence group SAAB). When the US State Department charged BAe with violating its arms export regulations through its unregulated and covert use of an offshore company (which operated with specific “intent to circumvent the normal payments reviews”) and middlemen all over the world, including in SA, in 2011, BAe settled, and agreed to pay a penalty of $79 million rather than face these charges.