From News 24:
Pretoria - Armscor has sold spare parts to the value of more than R1m to the Zimbabwean government, which will enable the country's Alouette helicopters to take to the air again despite European sanctions.
In addition, the South African government donated equipment to the value of more than R3m for this purpose to Zimbabwe.
A Zimbabwean company - which was, according to information, established by high-ranking members of the South African military community - will apparently undertake the upgrading of the helicopters.
Under normal circumstances, the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) has to grant permission and issue a permit before military equipment can be exported to another country, but in this instance the regulation was waived as the NCACC regarded the transaction as a commercial and not a military matter.
The NCACC informed Armscor that it was not necessary for the committee to issue an export permit as the spare parts did not fall under the weapons control act, said Armscor spokesperson Bertus Cilliers.
The spares were advertised on Armscor's website as obsolete equipment and the Zimbabwean government made an offer to buy it, said Cilliers.
The spares were supplied to Zimbabwe in March this year.
The South African air force is in the process of phasing out its Alouette fleet, which will be replaced by new Italian helicopters.
The sale of the spare parts cropped up last year after Zimbabwe had tried in vain to obtain spare parts for its fleet of Alouette helicopters.
Several European countries have sanctions in place against Zimbabwe, which means that the country faces many closed doors.
Zimbabwe is furthermore on the United Nations' blacklist of countries to which no weapons may be sold.
Desperate for spares
Apparently an Israeli businessman initially acted as go-between for South Africa and Zimbabwe.
He apparently gave Zimbabwe a quotation of $20m (about R120m) for the spares, but the country decided it was too expensive and the transaction fell through.
As a result, a Zimbabwean company with high-placed South Africans as directors was established to continue negotiations for the parts.
Apparently a probe into this donation forms part of an investigation into alleged financial malpractice in Armscor.
Helmoed-Römer Heitman, military expert, said a military export permit should be issued whenever military helicopter spares were sold.
In the instance of a government-to-government donation, such as that of naval patrol boats to Mozambique, no permit was required.
Heitman said Zimbabwe was desperate for spares after its helicopters worked overtime in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo a couple of years ago.
Several of the helicopters had been written off in the DRC and only a few were still serviceable due to a lack of proper maintenance.