African Activist Archive

Davis discusses the growing violence in South Africa that is threatening progress toward majority rule, including the role of the KwaZulu police, hit squads, vigilantes, the right wing, Inkatha, and foreign mercenaries. In this dangerous context, millions of dollars of American-made shotguns and ammunition have been illegally exported to South Africa with export licenses that were granted on the basis of fraudulent assertions that they were going to countries bordering South Africa. The Africa Fund first alerted the Departments of State and Commerce to a series of these cases in November 1990, and in June, 1991 it filed a Freedom of Information request with the Department of Commerce. When this was denied, The Africa Fund, in cooperation with the Center for Constitutional Rights, filed suit in federal court to force disclosure of the export documents. One example for these exports is the case of Tatos Brothers, which ordered guns supposedly destined for Zimbabwe, although a cable from the U.S. Embassy there concluded that it was unlikely that the orders were intended to enter that country. Another cable from then Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger concluded that 13 licenses for $1.6 million of arms exported to Tatos Brothers in Zimbabwe "all appear to be fraudulent." The documents also show that jurisdictional infighting between the Departments of Commerce and Customs impeded investigation of these arms exports. The Africa Fund lost the case and no documents were released. Davis also mentions President de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, Judge Goldstone, and COSATU. Attached to the testimony are two newspaper articles about the evidence of U.S. arms reaching South Africa and the U.S. cover up and "Presentation to International Hearing on Violence in South Africa," London, 14-15 July 1992, by Max Coleman of the Human Rights Commission of South Africa.

African Activist Archive

Testimony of Jennifer Davis Executive Director of the Africa Fund Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Recent Development in South Africa

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