Top IT companies such as IBM, Siemens and AEG-Telefunken may be among a long list of defendants to face a class-action lawsuit related to alleged contravention of the Apartheid-era arms embargo against SA.
The lawsuit is part of complex legal action being taken by the anti-arms group Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (ECAAR), to fight the supply of arms to SA. Local ECAAR head Terry Crawford-Browne says the group is preparing a lawsuit under Section 38 of the Constitution against the South African government over new SA arms deals with foreign countries.
Says Crawford-Browne: "The application seeks the nullification of the loan agreements that give effect to the SA government`s intentions to purchase warships and warplanes from Germany, Britain, Sweden, France and Italy. We are arguing that the arms deal is unconstitutional because it is strategically and economically irrational."
If the suit proves successful, ECAAR plans to go on to challenge countries and companies that allegedly supplied technology to SA in contravention of the arms embargo against SA during the Apartheid era. Crawford-Browne says such a case would be brought in the US under the Alien Tort Act, in terms of which foreign companies that do business in the US are subject to US jurisdiction.
"Essentially the same governments and companies were involved in flouting the 1977-1994 United Nations arms embargo against Apartheid, and again now in the European Union`s Code of Conduct on Arms Exports."
While Crawford-Browne says it is premature to comment on which companies and countries will be named in the class action suit, it has been reported that defendants could include major IT companies such as IBM, Siemens and AEG-Telefunken, which have been named in University of Cape Town reports on companies that defied the 1977-1994 UN arms embargo against SA.
The suit is likely to seek around $20 billion in damages on behalf of the victims of Apartheid. Crawford-Brown says reparations would be used to establish a foundation that has the capacity to spend substantial amounts of money on selected issues relating to Apartheid victims, such as housing, education and healthcare.
"The intention is to hit the perpetrators and their governments with sufficiently large reparations that they will think again before involving themselves in the proliferation of armaments in essentially Third World countries," he says.
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