The Lady R, a Russian ship that docked in Simon’s Town, was carrying equipment that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) had ordered from Armscor.
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This was revealed in an executive summary of the panel report into the investigation released by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday night, which further stated that the manufacturing, packaging, and delivery of the equipment were delayed by the outbreaks of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, among others.
According to the report, the Lady R transported equipment that was ordered from a company based in the United Arab Emirates.
The goods were offloaded at night, under the cover of darkness, over two nights (7-9 December) last year.
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‘The details of the equipment offloaded and its intended use were made known to the panel,’ read the statement, adding that the nature and purpose of the equipment would only be revealed should Ramaphosa decide to publish it.
‘In light of this classified information, the panel accepted the reasons provided for the decision to offload the equipment at night,’ the statement continued.
The report further stated that the panel found no evidence to substantiate that arms were loaded onto the vessel and the available evidence only confirmed the offloading. Nothing further was loaded.
According to the panel, the equipment had not been properly stored and containerised as it was packed on pallets. This would explain why empty containers were brought to the port by trucks and the pallets were loaded into the containers on the dock before being loaded on the trucks.
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Also read:
No evidence of weapons loaded for export onto Lady R, says Ramaphosa
Picture: Cyril Ramaphosa / Facebook