Mr President – Please Review NCACC Leadership

Statement by Chris Hattingh MP and Nicholas Gotsell MP:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes the President must urgently review whether the current composition and leadership of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) are capable of fulfilling their statutory and constitutional responsibilities following sustained governance failures.

This is after the NCACC was scheduled to appear before the Joint Standing Committee on Defence on Friday. Once again, at the last minute, Minister Ntshaveni, Minister in the Presidency, who chairs the NCACC, did not pitch. This has become a pattern. Friday’s meeting, 20 February, has again been postponed at short notice. Parliament cannot function like this.

The Joint Standing Committee on Defence has therefore on Friday resolved that the meeting scheduled for 6 March will take place in person, with the NCACC required to be physically present before the Committee.

Only seven NCACC meetings were held in 2025. The last meeting took place in October. No meetings were held in November, December or January, effectively leaving the country without a functioning export decision authority for at least four months.

A statutory committee entrusted with regulating a multibillion-rand export sector cannot disappear for a quarter of the year. The NCACC is not a casual advisory body. It is a statutory authority responsible for approving arms export permits under the National Conventional Arms Control Act.

Together with its secretariat, the Directorate for Conventional Arms Control (DCAC), it sits at the centre of South Africa’s defence export system.

This system already regulates billions of rand in exports every year and supports thousands of skilled jobs across engineering, manufacturing, logistics and advanced technology. It sustains small and medium enterprises throughout the supply chain and protects high-tech capabilities that South Africa cannot afford to lose.

Industry estimates suggest that, if properly supported and efficiently regulated, South Africa’s defence industry could quadruple its contribution to the economy and grow into a R300–R370 billion per annum sector. That level of growth would significantly strengthen exports, industrial capacity and job creation.

The South African Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Industries Association (AMD), the only government-recognised body representing the defence export industry, has raised serious concerns about systemic failures in the licensing system.

AMD reports irregular NCACC meetings, prolonged decision backlogs, poor communication, lost or delayed applications, staff shortages, a lack of standard operating procedures and dysfunctional IT systems. There are also reports of applications being held indefinitely, contracts cancelled with penalties, and companies considering relocating offshore.

At the same time, the NCACC/DCAC permit database has reportedly been offline for several weeks since 9 January 2026. If confirmed, this means export approvals have been severely disrupted for more than a month and, despite reports that it is “functional” again, serious concerns have been raised about data integrity.

This is not a minor technical issue. When permits are delayed, vessels wait, contracts stall, penalties accumulate and jobs are placed at risk. Every day of uncertainty damages South Africa’s credibility as a reliable and responsible defence supplier.

South Africa must comply fully with international law and strict export controls. Ultimately, compliance cannot mean dysfunction. A lawful system must also function efficiently, predictably and transparently.

It was for this reason the DA called for the committee to report Minister Ntshaveni to the President for her dereliction of duty.

The integrity of South Africa’s arms export control regime, and the economic future tied to it, cannot be compromised by continued dysfunction. Parliamentary oversight is not optional. Executive accountability is not negotiable.