The Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor) says that no country can willingly divulge the secrets of its military operations.
This was in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying that aspects of a report by the independent panel that investigated the docking of Russia’s Lady R- cargo ship in Simon’s Town naval base in December last year, couldn’t be made public.
In his address to the nation, at the weekend, Ramaphosa said that the independent panel had found no evidence that weapons were loaded on to the ship.
Armscor chairperson, Dr Phillip Dexter says government has limits in giving information to the public.
“I don’t think there’s a country in the world, where anybody would expect the government to reveal military secrets that could jeopardise the men and women who defend that country. I accept that the country may have distrust about various things but the report indicates clearly that the ship brought stuff and offloaded, it did not load anything to take back to Russia, other than the Russians for the record. People going on and trying to make an issue about it have to accept that government has limits as to what it can do in terms of giving information to the public.”
