via Cancellation of export to Zim a triumph – AfriForum by Juran van den Heever on 06 February, 2014
The decision by the Department of Defence to cancel the planned donation of 12 Alouette helicopters to Zimbabwe is a victory for human rights in the region.
This was the reaction of AfriForum Legal Advisor, Willie Spies, after it came to light that the South African Defence Force will not push ahead with plans to export the helicopters to Zimbabwe. The aircraft will be donated to Namibia instead.
An urgent court order obtained by AfriForum last year prevented the donation of the helicopters and parts to Zimbabwe, as there were fears that the Zimbabwean Government would use the aircraft against its own citizens.
According to Beeld the Air Force had said this week that final approval for the donation to Namibia was still pending, but that it seemed to be a formality. According to reports the aircraft and parts are packed and in hangars, ready to be shipped to Namibia. The French Government, the manufacturer, had apparently also approved the deal. This is a security measure to prevent the helicopters from falling into the wrong hands.
It is still unclear what Namibia will do with the helicopters. That country’s air force uses an Indian variant of the Alouette, which aviation specialists believe will make it relatively easy for the Namibians to get the South African craft off the ground.
Apparently South Africa had donated 150 Samil trucks and 24 G2 140 mm guns to Namibia in 1998. During this time, Namibia and Zimbabwe were involved in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It later came to light that the guns were sent on to the DRC just after their arrival at Grootfontein.
AfriForum will monitor the transaction carefully. If it should happen that the donation to Namibia was merely a set to have the helicopters delivered to Zimbabwe in any event, a complaint of contempt of court will be brought against the relevant ministers and officials.
COMMENTS
Maybe they could still be used but not by Zanupf
thanks a lot. why support this rouge regime?
Someone out there used a brain!
Going Zim via Namibia???
South Africa would have come under heavy, heavy international scrutiny and possible sanction if this had happened. Good for them.
This is idiocy of the utmost….What would ZANU(PF) use helicopters for against Zimbabweans…Can anyone seriously see a situation where helicopters fly over rural villages dropping bombs in Zim??? Naivety at its best…No the issue is when Western backed rebels try to infiltrate from Botswana they know these helicopters will turn them into dust…But hazvinei..Let them come they will find out just how fiercely we will defend our country..We fight not for Mugabe but for Zimbabwe and noone should ever think we will tolerate any external influence in our affairs. When/If we want Mugabe/ZANU to go we will deal with it ourselves in our own way…Ngavasiyane nesu…Ivhu racho ratakatora handiti nderedu here nhai veduwe?
Terror tactics chum.
Our country? Hahahaha. Mashonaland is your country. Matabeleland will be free eventually . It will be the Shona Vietnam. Just wait. 🙂
@ Nkiwane: did u bring Matebeleland with you from shaka land by the way??? Ramps uchirota
You didn’t mind the Chinese stealing your country-oh let me see they are willing to turn a blind eye while your own people are being ravaged by a contemptuous bunch of thugs pretending to be a government.
helicopters flew and animals were shot in game parks and shot at people in chiadzwa and wez knows an easily situation with a future gukuru……..
Wezhira you are paranoid. Why would anyone attack Zimbabwe? You dream of western backed rebels, shame, you are delusional.
I am not delusional mate, that is the realistic of international system. Why do you think all these countries spent billions of dollars on military their military? Its not for decorating the country, that is fear of the unknown mate and thats how states behaves. They have got fear for the future as no one can predict it.
Actually, states act like human beings. Growing up mate you had a house and you would lock the outside doors and yet at the same time you would also lock your own bedroom door within that house. Why would you do that? fearing that you would miss your possessions. Members of your family would took it!!! Even now you stil lock doors at night for What? Fearing a neighbour who doesnt have weapons of war. How about states???
States with no armies and military technology are toothless lions. Regardless of who will attack Zimbabwe or not, Relations detect that Zim must be powerful enough to have influence whether in peace times or not.
You live in a dreamland mate. You seem to like the west you think they don’t have military technology??? Wake up mate…. The US is building defensive walls in eastern europe, against whom??? They have given Telviv Billions on military aid , against Whom?
Britain is building the best military planes at present, against whom? Thats the game mate … fear of attack from the unknown friend …
Wezhara, a genocidal attack has been on the plan for years. That’s why SADC approves zanupf rigging.its better that way than to allow democracy to prevail but end with a genocide in zim. Mbeki and Zuma are aware of this and instead of defending democracy, they have opted for the easy way out. Definately if zanupf was pushed out of power through the ballot, they were going to slaughter village after village until Tsvangirai resigned. They did it during the infamous run off and it worked.
Ndodha, where are you getting that information. You must be very close to Mbeki and Zuma!!!!! You write of democracy, what is democracy? You think Tsvangirai is a democratic person? Tell us, how come he is still the MDC president after how many years? Are you telling us that he is the only who can lead MDC?
And why is it that the party that supposed to be a people people is called by his name. Without Tsvangirai no MDC. Why the MDCT for? Have ever heard ZANU PF called ZANU PF Mugabe.
If he cannot be democratic now, what makes you think he will be, if he took over. He is a bird of the same further and pasi naye!!!!
In western political culture, if you fail to win the general election, someone else will take over the leadership of the party. Even with that, it does not mean that they are democratic. Democracy is a fantasy word meant to attract a girl and does not work in the real world.
@ ignasio
Then why did Bob steal the elections – three times? Why has Botswana now publicly stated that the elections were stolen?
Dhodha, everyone stills if the given the opportunity. Check British or American general elections. “MDC T” has been complaining about election rigging ever since it was formed and it has become a national anthem for them. Even if they were stolen, do you think ZANU PF would still all 7million votes from the “MDC T”. This should tell you something!!!
Then if that is true, let us applaud ZANU PF. But you still have to answer my question, Is there noone else in “MDC T” who can take over from Tsvangirai? Is Tsvangirai the only person who can lead MDC? Let MDC supporters sort their party problems first before they can look at Zimbabwe.
Sorry, maybe MDC T is Tsvangirai’s private limited company!!! Please advise us??
Because we all know wot Khama’s agenda is
Pasi zanupf
So Ignasio, Tsvangirai is MDC Private Limited much like Mugarbage is ZANU PF Private Limited Duh!!!
Huhu
When everything have been said, it can be argued that Mugabe remains one of the best president in Africa. Who else can you say is the best in Africa???
What if the donation ends in Zimbabwe still via Namibia. Namibia has less transperent laws than South Africa. The issue of some amunition that was once procured from soem Wetern country before 2008 may happen again. In that case there was a lot of noise and then the same military consignment came to Zimbabwe via land as opposed directly through air. The best deal was to just destory the consignment if South African defence no longer need the stuff.