Summary: State Party South Africa ratified the convention on 28 May 2015. It has indicated that existing legislation will suffice to enforce its implementation of the convention. South Africa has participated in every meeting of the convention and voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2017.

In September 2017, South Africa provided an initial transparency report that confirmed it produced and imported cluster munitions in the past. It declared a stockpile of 1,495 cluster munitions and 99,465 submunitions, of which 139 cluster munitions and 78,994 submunitions or components were destroyed in or by September 2012.

Policy

The Republic of South Africa signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 28 May 2015, and theconvention entered into force for the country on 1 November 2015.

South Africa reported in September 2017 that it does not plan to enact specific implementing legislation for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, as it regards the Anti-Personnel Mines Prohibition Act as sufficient to enforce the convention’s provisions.[1]

South Africa submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 8 September 2017.[2] As of 25 June 2018, it had not provided the annual updated report due by 30 April 2018.

South Africa participated throughout the Oslo Process that created the convention and its policy evolved to support a comprehensive ban on cluster munitions.[3] It hosted a regional meeting on cluster munitions in Pretoria in March 2010. South Africa ratified the convention in May 2015, after it was approved by the National Council of Provinceson 18 November 2014.[4]

South Africa has participated in every meeting of the convention, most recently the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017.[5]

South Africa voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation and universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2017.[6]

At the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2017, South Africa repeated its call for states that have not yet done so to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions without delay.[7]

South Africa has condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria several times since 2013, when it said “we deplore any use of cluster munitions by any State including the alleged recent use of cluster munitions in Syria, which has led to a number of casualties including women and children.”[8]

South Africa has not elaborated its views on several important issues relating to its interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

South Africa is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use

There is little to no public information available on South Africa’s past use of cluster munitions.

Production

South Africa produced cluster munitions in the past.[9] South African company Denel manufactured two types of air-dropped bombs:

• A CB-470 aerial cluster bomb containing 40 Alpha submunitions, which was apparently produced only for export.
• A 255kg aircraft bomb containing 247 submunitions.

Denel also manufactured two types of 155mm artillery projectiles:

• An M2001 155mm artillery projectile, containing 42 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions with self-destruct features.[10]
• An M2001 155mm artillery projectile labeled “2201102,” which also contains 42 DPICM submunitions with self-destruct devices.

South Africa’s transparency report section on its decommissioning of production facilities states: “None. Production ceased in 2012 at Rheinmetall, denel [sic].”[11] This indicates that the production of cluster munitions at Denel’s facilities in South Africa apparently did not cease until 2012, four years after South Africa signed the convention in December 2008. As a signatory, South Africa is bound by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties not to engage in acts that “would defeat the object and purpose” of any treaty it signed.

German company Rheinmetall Defence acquired four Denel divisions in 2008 and is the majority owner of Rheinmetall Denel Munition (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa, which still advertises 155mm artillery ammunition for sale.[12] Cluster Munition Monitor has asked Rheinmetall Denel Munition to clarify if it produced cluster munitions in 2008–2012.[13]

Transfer

It is not clear if South Africa exported or otherwise transferred the cluster munitions that it produced. However, Iraq reportedly acquired the CB-470 in the late 1980s.[14] Deminers in Zambia and Mozambique have encountered unexploded Alpha submunitions.[15]

In 2005, South Africa acknowledged the possession of a type of aerial cluster bomb called TIEKIE, but said it was for training use only.[16]

Stockpiling

South Africa once stockpiled at least 1,495 cluster munitions and 99,465 submunitions. In September 2017, it reported a stockpile of 1,485 cluster munitions and 99,465 submunitions comprised of two types of air-dropped bombs and two types of 155mm artillery projectiles. It also reported another 10 CB-470 bombs that were destroyed.

Cluster munition stockpiled by South Africa[17]

Stockpile destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, South Africa is required to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but no later than 1 November 2023.

South Africa has reported the destruction by open detonation/open burning at Alkantpan by or on 12 September 2012 of 139 cluster munitions and 78,994 submunitions or components previously held at industrial facilities owned Rheinmetall Denel Munition:

• 129 individual submunitions for 155mm artillery projectiles;
• 78,594 components for submunitions used for 155mm artillery projectiles;
• 108 155mm projectiles; and
• 10 CB-470 Alpha cluster bombs, each containing 40 submunitions.[18]

In September 2016, South Africa informed States Parties that its cluster munition stocks had been taken out of commission and “ring-fenced for planned disposal.”[19]

Retention

In its 2017 transparency report, South Africa stated that it is not retaining any cluster munitions.[20]