Deputy Defence and Military Veterans Minister Bantu Holomisa has said the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) will consider defence export applications on 26 February after long delays and what have been termed “sustained governance failures” at the NCACC.
Holomisa’s announcement of the NCACC convening this week was made during his Armed Forces Day speech on Saturday evening. He said the South African defence industry (SADI) “continues to sustain the Defence Force under challenging conditions.”
The deputy acknowledged the critical role of defence exports in the revenue generation and sustainability of the industry, and said delays in convening the NCACC to process applications arose from “unavoidable commitments, including preparations for the [Defence Industry] Lekgotla, the State of the Nation Address, and various cluster meetings. However, 26 February has been formally earmarked for the consideration of the pending applications.”
“We are fully aware that delays in this process have multi-tiered implications for the industry and the broader economy. Please be assured that the Committee meets regularly and remains committed to executing its mandate diligently and responsibly. We trust that this explanation will be received in good faith and reaffirm our commitment to constructive engagement with the defence industry.”
In a Friday 20 February presentation to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD), the Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Industries Association of South Africa (AMD) bemoaned the fact that only seven NCACC meetings were held in 2025, with the last in October, leaving a 3-4 month “annual decision vacuum”. Compounding this is the fact that the NCACC permit system has been offline since January. Normally, defence import and export permits take about three months to be processed, which “seriously hinders competitivity.”
The organisation told Parliament that systemic failures in export controls are choking South Africa’s defence industry, placing revenue, jobs, skills and international credibility at risk. It described an “operational breakdown” at the Directorate Conventional Arms Control (DCAC), including poor communication, lost and delayed applications, and trivial rejections.
Some applications (notably artillery ammunition to Poland) are held ‘under consideration’ indefinitely, and contracts are cancelled with penalties due to the delays.
The impact on the industry means exports and imports are halted, missed deliveries and lost revenue, South Africa no longer being considered a reliable partner in security, job losses and skills flight, and companies relocating offshore, AMD said.
From an industry perspective, the crisis is driven by a lack of leadership and accountability within DCAC; insufficient understanding of defence industry business models; overly rigid policy interpretation divorced from operational reality; and inadequate systems, resourcing, and service-delivery orientation.
AMD believes the defence industry could quadruple its contribution to the economy, and if properly supported could become a $15-20 billion per annum industry.
The industry association requested that the NCACC schedule regular meetings, review harmful instructions, stabilise DCAC operations, and simplify the permit process.
“We are calling for a listening and responsive, responsible and accountable regulatory regime and government. The current regulatory regime is dysfunctional, it is failing, and has virtually collapsed. Being defensive and dismissive about it, will not assist any of us. As industry we stand ready to engage openly, progressively and collaboratively on finding a lasting solution,” AMD told the JSCD.
Two Democratic Alliance (DA) Members of Parliament (MPs) said the “pattern” of meeting non-attendance by the NCACC’s chair must be brought to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attention.
The pair – Chris Hattingh, a National Assembly (NA) public representative, and Nicholas Gotsell who represents the DA in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) – have history with the Khumbudzo Ntshavheni chaired NCACC going back a year when they were “blocked” from continuing an unannounced oversight visit to the NCACC offices in the Armscor Building. A subsequent ethics complaint to Parliamentary authorities which seemingly went as far as making it to court have, the pair maintain, been to shield Ntshavheni, Minister in The Presidency. Earlier this month a Gotsell statement again took the NCACC, its senior office bearer and the Directorate for Conventional Arms Control to task for not doing its work.
That “history” continued with Gotsell, by way of a statement, making public the NCACC’s current inability to issue permits approving arms and associated services sales. This, according to him, was because the NCACC system was “offline” and follows assurances that a new permit system would be functional by last May.
The latest verbal salvo – aimed at Ntshavheni as well as the NCACC and the DCAC – calls for Ramaphosa to review NCACC leadership. The call is supported by claims the committee is incapable of fulfilling its statutory and constitutional responsibilities made in the wake of another Ntshavheni non-appearance at Friday’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) meeting.
“Once again, at the last minute, Ntshavheni did not appear,” the joint Gotsell/Hattingh statement reads with the meeting postponed at short notice. “Parliament cannot function like this” with the JSCD resolving the meeting “scheduled for 6 March will take place in person with the NCACC required to be physically present”.
On the four month absence of a functioning export decision authority, Gotsell and Hattingh said, “a statutory committee entrusted with regulating a multi-billion Rand export sector cannot disappear for a quarter of the year. The NCACC is not a casual advisory body. It is a statutory authority responsible for approving arms export permits under the National Conventional Arms Control Act.”
“When permits are delayed, vessels wait, contracts stall, penalties accumulate and jobs are placed at risk. Every day of uncertainty damages South Africa’s credibility as a reliable and responsible defence supplier,” as per the Gotsell/Hattingh statement.
A South African freight forwarding company is reported as saying “issues” with new arms exports first emerged in July last year leading to “significant expenses and loss of business to [the South African defence] industry”. Defence companies were reported as being reluctant to complain because “they don’t want to fight with the NCACC”.
