United Nations Security Council Resolution 418, adopted unanimously on 4 November 1977, imposed a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa.[1] This resolution differed from the earlier Resolution 282, which was only voluntary. The embargo was subsequently tightened and extended by Resolution 591.
The South African government devised a number of strategies to bypass the embargo to obtain military technology and components that it was unable to procure openly. United Nations Security Council Resolution 591 was passed in 1986 to extend the embargo and to tighten some of the loopholes.
Local production
Many armaments were wholly designed and manufactured in South Africa, as reflected by the growth and export business of Armscor. South African defence industries were able to successfully meet demand in some areas such as ammunition, infantry weapons, missile technology and armoured vehicles but struggled when it came to the development of combat aircraft, attack helicopters and main battle tanks.[7] For more advanced systems, Armscor would often modernise and improve on designs imported or licence-built in the years prior to the embargo, sometimes to the point of being an almost completely different design (such as the Atlas Oryx helicopter or Olifant main battle tank). By the 1980s, almost all of South Africa's weapons were domestically developed.[8]
Smuggling
Notable operations that came to light were:
The 1984 case of the Coventry Four. Four South African businessmen in the UK were found to be operating a front company on the behalf of Kentron that was sourcing materiel in defiance of the ban.
The nuclear weapons program reached its peak during the embargo. According to David Albright, components for the program were imported without the knowledge of the international community, or put to ingenious uses that had not been envisaged by the enforcers of the embargo.[9]
Dual purpose equipment
Computer and air traffic control radar systems ostensibly destined for civilian use were diverted to the military.[10]
South Africa exchanged military technology with other states in a similar position to itself, notably through the Israel–South Africa Agreement, as well as with Taiwan and Morocco. Between 1977 and 1991, Morocco was involved in transfer of French technology, French armaments and designs to South Africa, and in return South African Forces and specialists went to train the Moroccan Armed Forces and Police[11]
^Cawthra, Gavin. "Arms for apartheid: the secret world of sanctions busting." Index on Censorship 20, no. 10 (1991): 41-42.
^Wessels, A., & Marx, L. (2008). The 1977 United Nations mandatory arms embargo against South Africa: a historical perspective after 30 years. Journal for Contemporary History, 33(1), 70-86.