The hypocrisy of South Africa's arms trade: Job creation or genocide?

By Carl Niehaus

As a proud South African and a staunch member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), I am compelled to speak out against the grotesque hypocrisy embedded in our nation’s arms manufacturing industry.

Companies like Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM), a joint venture between German arms giant Rheinmetall and South Africa’s state-owned Denel, are churning out weapons of death—155mm Assegai artillery shells, high-explosive munitions, and components linked to incendiary horrors like white phosphorus bombs.

These are exported to NATO countries, only to be funnelled onward to conflict zones where they fuel atrocities.

In Ukraine, they bolster a grinding war; in Gaza, they enable a wanton genocide against Palestinians.

And let’s not forget shipments to places like Sudan, where human rights abuses are rampant.

This is not economic progress—it’s blood money, and the tired excuse of “job creation” is a morally bankrupt shield that crumbles under scrutiny, much like the defences of German companies complicit in Nazi crimes after World War II.

RDM’s operations exemplify this depravity. As recently as July 2025, Rheinmetall announced a massive order for 155mm artillery ammunition from a European NATO member, with production heavily reliant on its South African subsidiary.

Similar deals have poured in: Sweden signed a $526 million contract with RDM for ammunition, and multiyear frameworks supply NATO states with Assegai 155mm projectiles.

These aren’t benign exports—they feed into a shadowy supply chain. NATO allies, including Germany, have ramped up arms transfers to Ukraine, with Rheinmetall directly involved in delivering 155mm rounds to Kyiv under Bundeswehr frameworks.

But the trail doesn’t stop there. Rheinmetall’s global network has been implicated in arming Israel, whose military operations in Gaza have drawn well documented accusations of war crimes from bodies like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Apartheid Israel has repeatedly used white phosphorus munitions—incendiary weapons that burn through flesh and cause excruciating, long-term suffering—in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon, violating international humanitarian law when deployed against civilians.

While Rheinmetall publicly disavows certain “controversial” weapons like cluster munitions, their denial rings hollow amid reports of phosphorus use in ongoing conflicts, and their ammunition often ends up in the hands of those who wield it indiscriminately.

This isn’t speculation; it’s a pattern of complicity. Rheinmetall’s secretive factory expansions cater to “friendly” NATO countries while parallel businesses arm volatile regions. Exports have reached Sudan, where civil war rages with documented atrocities, and Malaysia, a market for RDM’s munitions amid regional tensions.

But the most egregious is the indirect flow to Israel. German arms exports to Israel surged in recent years, including Rheinmetall components, enabling the bombardment of Gaza that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and razed infrastructure in what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has termed genocidal acts.

South Africa’s own history of apartheid should make us viscerally opposed to such enablement—yet here we are, manufacturing the tools of oppression in our factories, exporting them under the guise of legitimate trade, and watching as they rain down terror on innocents. The defenders of this industry—corporate executives, government officials, and even some economists—invariably trot out the “job creation” argument.

They claim that RDM’s operations in South Africa provide employment for thousands, boosting local economies in a country plagued by unemployment rates hovering above 30%. Yes, factories hum with activity, workers earn wages, and supply chains ripple through communities. But this is a deeply flawed, ethically void rationale.

Manufacturing weapons that enable mass murder cannot be justified by economic gains, no matter how desperate our nation’s need for growth. The EFF is unapologetically committed to job creation and economic liberation— we fight for land redistribution, nationalization of mines, and policies that uplift the black majority disenfranchised by centuries of colonialism and apartheid. But we draw a red line: prosperity cannot come at the expense of human rights, nor can it rationalize the production of instruments of genocide and war crimes.

This principle isn’t novel; it’s etched in the annals of history, particularly in the aftermath of World War II when German companies like Mercedes-Benz (then Daimler-Benz) and BMW faced reckoning for their collusion with the Nazis. During the Third Reich, Daimler-Benz transformed into a pillar of the Nazi war machine, producing vehicles, aircraft engines, and tanks while exploiting forced labor from concentration camps, prisoners of war, and Jewish slaves under barbaric conditions.

Adolf Hitler himself favoured Mercedes vehicles for propaganda parades, and the company donated cars and funds to the regime. BMW, meanwhile, manufactured aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe and motorcycles for the Wehrmacht, with its founding Quandt family amassing fortunes through expropriated Jewish businesses and slave labor that claimed lives at an appalling rate—up to 80 deaths per month in factories.

These companies weren’t passive; they actively profited from the Holocaust, enforcing racial hierarchies and supplying the machinery of genocide. Post-war, the Allies imposed denazification, stripping Nazi-affiliated executives and seizing assets under the Potsdam Agreement.

Factories were dismantled, foreign holdings lost, and production halted temporarily. While not dissolved outright—due to the need for West Germany’s reconstruction—these firms faced investigations, management purges, and later, voluntary reparations. Daimler-Benz paid $12 million in 1988 to forced labor survivors, and BMW contributed to a 2000 industry fund totaling $5 billion for victims. Crucially, neither could hide behind “job creation.”

Their employment of thousands didn’t absolve them; it compounded their guilt, as jobs were sustained through slave labor and war profiteering. The Nuremberg trials targeted industrialists like those from IG Farben for similar crimes, establishing that economic arguments don’t excuse complicity in atrocities.

BMW’s Günther Quandt was classified a “collaborator” and was forced to issue a public acknowledgement and apologies and also pay restitution to the families of the victims of the Nazis, but the moral stain lingers up to today. South Africa must learn from this.

RDM’s exports mirror that era’s moral failure: producing arms that end up in genocidal hands, all while claiming economic benefits. In Gaza, white phosphorus shells—linked to suppliers like Rheinmetall—have caused horrific burns and environmental devastation, with Israel admitting use in past operations.

In Ukraine, incendiary weapons have been deployed amid accusations of war crimes. Sudan and Malaysia add layers of instability, where munitions exacerbate conflicts. The EFF rejects this unequivocally.

We demand an end to such exports, sanctions on complicit firms, and a pivot to ethical industries—renewable energy, agriculture, manufacturing for peace. Jobs yes, but not built on graves. Our nation’s soul is at stake. We overthrew apartheid; we cannot now arm modern equivalents. Let history judge us not as enablers of evil, but as warriors for justice.

The EFF stands firm: no rationalization of the indefensible. Stop any arms trade with enablers of genocide and war crimes now, before more blood stains our hands.

*** Carl Niehaus is an EFF member of Parliament

** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL

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