Saudi stake in Denel will be a human rights folly

Recent news that the Saudi Arabian Military Industries company is considering an equity stake in Denel is taken up by Media Review Network’s Suraya Dadoo, who argues that this makes a mockery of local and international statutes, as the country is guilty of gross human rights violations in Yemen. In an analysis on the City Press site, she notes in the past three years, a Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemen into famine, creating a ‘drastic’ humanitarian crisis. ‘Riyadh’s campaign to restore the Government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi has involved repeated violations of international law, including war crimes.’ She says SA’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) – which regulates weapons companies and exports – has been ‘lax’ in ensuring compliance by local arms dealers. In September this year, SA abstained from voting on a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for an international probe into human rights violations in Yemen. Dadoo notes that SA’s National Conventional Arms Control Act states that the NCACC must avoid transfers of arms to governments that violate human rights. Furthermore, under the UN Arms Trade Treaty, SA has an obligation to halt the supply of weapons if their use will violate international human rights law. Says Dadoo: ‘While International Relations Minister Lindiwe Sisulu seems committed to human rights-based international relations, her colleagues at the Department of Defence and the NCACC have been arming Saudi Arabia.’ She points out that SA weapons companies sold R3bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its coalition ally, the UAE, between 2016 and 2017.

Full analysis on the City Press site