Paul Holden | Daily Maverick | 18 August 2020 |
The crisis of State Capture and the epidemic of corruption that undermines Covid-19 relief and mitigation efforts, find their roots in the wholesale destruction of the capacity of the state to tackle corruption lest those capacities uncover the full rot of the Arms Deal.
South Africa is rapidly approaching a major milestone: in October 2020, the country will make its final payments on the loans taken out to pay for the purchase of submarines, corvettes, helicopters and fighter and trainer jets known collectively as the Arms Deal.Â
These purchases, formalised when the supply contracts were signed in December 1999, have profoundly defined and shaped South Africa’s post-apartheid political trajectory. The current crisis of State Capture and the epidemic of corruption that undermines Covid-19 relief and mitigation efforts, find their roots in the wholesale destruction of the capacity of the state to tackle corruption lest those capacities uncover the full rot of the Arms Deal.
This political cost is immense, but ultimately incalculable. But what is much more tangible and apt to be reduced to hard figures is the cost of the Arms Deal in real, hard, cash terms.Â
Using the best available information, I estimate that the cost of the Arms Deal, when adjusted for inflation, is equal to R142-billion in 2020 rand. Or, expressed another way, if the Arms Deal were to take place today, the total all-in costs to cover the purchases and the loans taken out to finance them, would be R142-billion.
