Or even why the South African authorities felt they knew better than the CAA, and approved the operation. Was this die to naivety, incompetence, or some kind of financial inducement?
Its sort of covered in 1.6.5.p12 of the report. The NDOT determined the technology was 'relatively simple technology' and they appear to be refering to aircraft systems rather than the military weapons/avionics/radar. No doubt a good argument was made by the operator that because the 'military' sytems were removed that the aircraft systems could be maintained adequately. What doesn't seem to have been appreciated, or made apparent was the difficulty of maintaining these systems.
At section 2.8 the report covers the change in the South African regulatory authorities which as it was concurrent with the registration and initial set up of TC lightning operations, could have aligned more than a few more holes in the cheese.