LETTER: Armscor was irredeemably corrupt
SA has no reason for a war industry, not even one it euphemistically calls a ‘defence’ industry
It was glaringly evident in 1994/1995 during the Cameron commission of inquiry into Armscor that SA’s war industry (let’s drop the “defence” euphemism) was managerially incompetent and irredeemably corrupt. Undeterred, war business lobbyists continue to sprout their canard that the apartheid era developed a formidable homegrown industry (“Why SA needs Denel and a defence industry (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2020-09-14-why-sa-needs-denel-and-a-defence-industry/)”, September 14).
The reality is that Armscor was built on pirated and stolen European, US and Israeli technology, and was heavily subsidised. As Noseweek’s Martin Welz pithily described it: “Israel had the brains but no money: SA had the money but no brains.”..
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