Chairperson, it is not uncommon to see the barbaric use of certain types of conventional weapons exacerbating conflicts, causing so-called collateral civilian deaths.
Furthermore, some types of conventional weapons which are often left behind long after the conflicts have been resolved continue to be of great harm to the communities, causing them pain and injury. Places like Afghanistan and others closer to home like Angola and Mozambique are typical examples of such cases.
The Bill before the House, the Prohibition or Restriction of Certain Conventional Weapons Bill, is designed to prevent the use and/or abuse of such weapons. As a signatory to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, referred to as CCW, South Africa is, in terms of Article 14 of Protocol 2 of this Convention, obliged to enact enabling legislation in order to give full effect to this convention.
Moreover, this Bill is in line with our Constitution, which seeks the protection of life, property and the dignity of each person. The parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence conducted public hearings on the Bill on 7 and 8 August.
Various stakeholders, including the International Red Cross, the AMD, which is the Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Industries Association - which protects the interests of our local defence industry - the ceasefire campaign, the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Institute for Security Studies, as well as state organs such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and SA Police Service, amongst others, made submissions and inputs. They all supported the Bill in principle. However, some of them had certain reservations in terms of some of the definitions, whilst others had objections to some clauses or certain clauses which they felt might negatively impact on their activities. For example, the AMD felt that some aspects of the legislated prohibition and restriction of certain conventional weapons would unduly limit their research and development capacity and the scope of some of South Africa's defence industries, especially work done on dual use technologies.
The International Committee of the Red Cross commented that although the regulation of harmful conventional weapons was important, the non- compliance of state parties to the convention was a cause for concern and argued for the need for both a domestic and an international body to ensure the implementation of legislation.
The Institute of Security Studies, while supporting the Bill, raised some very key issues, such as the lack of a proper definition of what exactly a blinding laser weapons system was. They also felt that the Bill was not so clear on how South African citizens serving in foreign militaries that are participating in giant peacekeeping operations with elements of the armed forces of other non-signatory states may be affected by this Bill.
So, the members of the committee took serious note of the impact that the extraterritorial implications of the Bill would have on the protection of intellectual rights, as well as the rights of foreign nationals who may be involved with such prohibited conventional weapons and who may enter the jurisdiction of South Africa in terms of air, sea and land and whose respective countries are not signatories to this convention.
Time does not permit me to provide in detail the various issues that were raised by various stakeholders in relation to the Bill - they are too many. However, I assure the House that the committee took into account all the concerns of the relevant stakeholders and, to the best of our ability, effected necessary and possible legal changes or amendments to the Bill. That was done, I must add, at very short notice.
I would like to thank the Department of Defence, especially the people from the legal services department, and the legal services of Parliament and the research unit for their expertise, the various institutions which made submissions during the public hearings as well as the chairperson of our committee and my colleagues - members of the committee - for their diligence and their co-operation. This is a good piece of legislation. Therefore, the DA will support the Bill. [Applause.] Thank you.