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Belief in offsets was naive

By Lee-Ann Alfreds The premise was irresistible: 64 165 jobs would be created and between R104-billion and R110-billion in investment attracted in return for spending just R30-billion, plus finance costs, on arms. So the South African government, unable to resist, duly contracted with several foreign arms companies to supply fighter jets, submarines, corvettes, helicopters and Read more >

Arms deal offsets – were they worth it?

In the newly democratised South Africa, who could say no to an investment into our economy of between R104- and R110-billion, with the creation of 65 000 jobs? This was the promise of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package (SDPP or arms deal) offset agreements. At the time it would cost the country around R30-billion – excluding Read more >