Urgent Application Brought to Halt Offloading and Transport of Arms Bound for Zimbabwe

Durban -- An urgent application is being brought in South Africa's High Court to suspend the grant of a conveyance permit allowing the transport of arms, currently on board the An Yue Jiang anchored in Durban's port, to the government of Zimbabwe and to prohibit the offloading of the consignment and any transport of it through or over the Republic of South Africa.

This interim relief is sought pending an application for a court order declaring the decision to grant the conveyance permit to be unlawful and invalid and reviewing and setting aside the decision of the Secretary of Defence who is purported to have granted the conveyance permit.

 The application is being brought on behalf of individuals, Bishop Rubin Phillip and Gerald Patrick Kearney, acting in the public interest, with the support of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre. Attorney JP Purshotam and Advocates Malcolm Wallis SC, Angus Stewart and Max du Plessis are acting in the matter.

The legal action will be brought in terms of the National Conventional Arms Control Act (the Act) which requires that any transfer of arms be authorised by a permit issued in terms of the Act. Specifically, the grant of a permit is limited under provisions of the Act which require that such transfer not contribute "to internal repression or suppression of human rights and fundamental freedom" and not provide "arms to governments that systematically violate or suppress human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) said: "given the current situation in Zimbabwe, with increasing accounts of widespread attacks on Zimbabwe's civilian population by government forces, it is hard to imagine clearer circumstances in which South African authorities were obliged to refuse the grant of any conveyance permit." 

Statement issued by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre April 18 2008