The South African Defence Industry

Abstract

Since the end of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela as President of the Republic of South Africa the world has seen a number of marked changes in this former pariah state. Amongst these have been changes within the defence industry of South Africa. New markets have availed themselves of this previously heavily sanctioned sector of industrial South Africa, new markets which have been and still are keenly fought over in the search for lucrative arms sales and where the industry has not been without success in selling equipment, developing niche product expertise, forming new international partnerships and most importantly securing more than comfortable export profits. Indeed, despite more than a degree of hostility on the part of some of the new political leaders towards what was once a central part of the apartheid regime, there was also a realization by those leaders that the defence industry could in its own way be of great help to the Government in launching its single most important policy, the RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme). This help, they felt, might come in the form of conversion, or perhaps by redistributing profits made by selling the ‘swords’ abroad and/or by using to better advantage the creativity displayed by the industry in building and developing both equipment and markets during the sanctions of the 1970s and 1980s.