United Nations lifts arms embargo on South Africa

Following the election of Nelson Mandela as president of the government of National Unity, the United Nations (UN) Security Council finally lifted the arms embargo in force against South Africa since 1977, opening the alarming possibility of South Africa becoming a major weapons supplier to the rest of Africa. The chief executive of the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor), the procurement agency for the South African army and the armaments industry's marketing organisation, announced that he expected South Africa to double arms exports as a result and to gain 25,000 jobs in the arms industry. South Africa participated in several major arms exhibitions throughout the year. However, the new government stated that South Africa would contribute to the UN conventional arms registers. It announced a ban on the export of landmines and stated that South Africa would not export arms to countries that abused human rights or were divided by civil war. In November, a commission of inquiry appointed by the new government held hearings into illegal arms trading by Armscor both before and after the election. Inquiries focused on an October shipment of AK-47 rifles, supposedly bound for Lebanon, that had attempted to offload in Yemen and had been returned to South Africa. Armscor admitted that, as long as an end-user certificate was provided, it made little effort to verify the final destination of weapons. Due to outstanding criminal proceedings against Armscor in a Philadelphia court, in connection with violations of arms sanctions during the 1980s, the embargo on arms sales by the United States was still enforced after the installation of the new government.