The National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) and its Directorate for Conventional Arms Control (DCAC) has not been able to issue permits approving arms and associated services sales since 9 January as its system is offline.
The “standstill”, as it has been christened by National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Member of Parliament (MP) Nicholas Gotsell, comes in the wake of “explicit assurances” that a new permit system would be fully functional by May last year. Gotsell, who sits on the NCOP Select Committee on Security and Justice (SCSJ) and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD), maintains the assurances are “now exposed as false”.
He has it further “deepening failures” at the NCACC, chaired by Minister in The Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, amount to a full-blown governance and accountability crisis.
“The NCACC,” a Democratic Alliance (DA) statement has him saying, “is a critical economic gatekeeper. It enables billions of Rand in defence exports, sustains thousands of skilled jobs and underpins South Africa’s credibility as a responsible arms-exporting state. When the NCACC fails, exports stall, contracts collapse, factories stand idle and jobs are put at risk”.
Making matters worse is the non-appearance of an NCACC delegation or representative before the JSCD – twice – one of which was the cancellation of a 30 January appearance. This, Gotsell says, is beyond administrative failure, calling it “deliberate avoidance”.
The “conduct” fits a clear pattern, Gotsell said: “In February 2025, Ntshavheni personally blocked MPs [Gotsell and party colleague Chris Hattingh] from conducting lawful oversight at the DCAC. When the DA filed an ethics complaint against her for this obstruction, she ran to court to block the ethics process, delaying accountability and masking the growing crisis inside the DCAC and NCACC”.
“Minister Ntshavheni’s court action was not about principle it was about shielding herself and hiding institutional failure. A minister who blocks oversight, delays an ethics investigation through the courts and who presides over a regulator that cannot issue permits is unfit to chair a body so central to South Africa’s economy and international obligations.”
A missive demanding “urgent reconvening” of the JSCD meeting with NCACC representation has gone to co-chairs Malusi Gigaba and Phiroene Phala compelling it to account – in full and without further delay.
The issue of the NCACC’s permit system being offline comes amid reports of millions lost in trade due to consequent shipping delays.
Sugie Govender, CEO of freight forwarder Transglobal told Freight News that issues with new arms export permits first emerged last July, causing significant expenses and loss of business to the industry. At about R50 000 a day, charter vessels specialising in dangerous goods shipments add significant expense when they can’t dock in time.
“Raw product is not coming in fast enough and finished product is not going out according to schedule. We have a client that has lost an entire shipment because of this,” Govender said.
Govender told Freight News that defence companies are reluctant to complaint because they don’t want to fight with the NCACC.
“Whether a fix costs millions or tens of millions, the economic loss from this downtime is far greater – and entirely preventable with proper IT resilience and contingency planning.”
He said that, without manual applications for NCACC certificates as a contingency measure, the industry urges relevant authorities to provide “clear communication, intervention, and a recovery plan with timelines”.
As for the NCACC, Govender said they are not even answering their phones. “Lines of communication are not kept open and we don’t really know what’s going on. The sector is suffering, not only the manufacturers but also those of us who are in the logistics space.”
