WEAPONS TRADE: SA accused of ‘unlawful’ R279m arms exports to the US despite international law violations

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre said the litigation was the first of its kind in South Africa, seeking a suspension of arms to a country because it constituted a threat to international peace and security.

The South African government has been accused of breaking its own laws and violating its obligations under the National Conventional Arms Control Act, by selling arms to the US in the face of “overwhelming evidence of its aggression and systematic international law violations”.

In an application to the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria, on Wednesday, 3 June 2026, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre is seeking the suspension of permits that were granted by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee authorising the export of arms to the US.

The committee approved more than R279-million worth of arms sales to the US in 2025, the litigation centre said, a time when the Trump administration had been accused of complicity in Israel’s commission of genocide and other international crimes in Gaza, and of the commission of war crimes and the crime of aggression in its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025.

The litigation centre argues that SA continued to export arms to the US despite having knowledge of these internationally wrongful acts.

Such arms transfers, it argues, violated provisions of the National Conventional Arms Control Act 41 of 2002 and international law.

“By authorising the transfer of arms to the US, which is likely to have acted in violation of international humanitarian law and the Genocide Convention, and also to have committed international war crimes, SA may well have aided or assisted in the commission of an internationally wrongful act. This is because the National Conventional Arms Control Committee authorised transfers of arms to the US ‘with knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act’.

“What this means is that the National Conventional Arms Control Committee’s authorisation of the impugned permits places SA in a position where it may be held responsible for the commission of an internationally wrongful act, by facilitating violations of international humanitarian law by the US,” the Southern Africa Litigation Centre said in its founding affidavit.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, the centre said the litigation was the first of its kind in SA, seeking a suspension of arms to a country because it constituted a threat to international peace and security.

The respondents are Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, in her capacity as chairperson of the Nati