The DA warns that the deepening failures at the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) and the Directorate for Conventional Arms Control (DCAC) now amount to a full-blown governance and accountability crisis, which is driven directly by Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the Chairperson of the NCACC.
The NCACC is a critical economic gatekeeper. It enables billions of rands in defence exports, sustains thousands of skilled jobs and underpins South Africa’s credibility as a responsible arms-exporting state. When the NCACC fails, exports stall, contracts collapse, factories stand idle and jobs are put at risk.
It has now emerged that the permit system of the administrative arm of the NCACC, the Directorate for Conventional Arms Control (DCAC), has been offline since 9 January, bringing permit issuance to a standstill. This follows explicit assurances given to Parliament in 2025 that a new system would be fully functional by May last year – assurances that have now been exposed as false.
Instead of accounting to Parliament, the NCACC has now failed to appear before the Joint Standing Committee on Defence twice, including cancelling its scheduled appearance on 30 January 2026. This is not administrative failure, but deliberate avoidance.
This conduct fits a clear pattern. In February 2025, Minister Ntshavheni personally blocked Members of Parliament from conducting lawful oversight at the DCAC. When the DA filed an ethics complaint against her for this obstruction, she ran to court to block the ethics process, delaying accountability and masking the growing crisis inside the DCAC and NCACC.
Minister Ntshavheni’s court action was not about principle, it was about shielding herself and hiding institutional failure. A Minister who blocks oversight, delays an ethics investigation through the courts and who presides over a regulator that cannot issue permits is unfit to chair a body so central to South Africa’s economy and international obligations.
The DA has written to the Chairpersons of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence to demand the urgent reconvening of the Committee, so that the NCACC and DCAC are compelled to account – in full and without further delay.
Soundbite by Nicholas Gotsell MP