ABSTRACT
South Africa is the second largest military spender in Sub-Saharan Africa and has the most developed arms industry, which has seen considerable change since the end of the “apartheid” regime that was in place over the period 1948–1994. This Chapter provides an overview of the evolution of the industry and an analysis of the present nature of the industry and its performance and behaviour. It finds an industry that has changed considerably since the end of Apartheid and is a shadow of its previous self. It did see some benefits from a major arms deal with offsets, though at questionable cost and with a corrupting influence on the young democracy. There has been an increasing involvement of foreign defence companies, with SA companies becoming part of international supply chains, and state-owned Denel the only large comprehensive systems integrator in decline and struggling. Declining domestic procurement has led to pressures to export that have now led to problems and pressures on arms export control regulations. Given the problems with the public sector resulting from state capture, relatively low economic growth, and the extremely high unemployment rate, the Government is unlikely to remove support from Denel anytime soon.
