Denel has again posted a substantial loss of R363m (Defence industry slump hits Denel, August 23) during its 2001-2002 financial year, again disproving the myth that making weapons is a profitable business.

The assumption that arms exports are a major contributor to job creation and foreign exchange earnings is completely false. The armaments industry is a capital intensive rather than labour intensive industry. It is also a heavily subsidised industry, so subsidies divert public resources away from priorities such as education, health services and housing.

Export figures for last year totalled R1,737bn, less than 0,7% of SA's total exports last year and an insignificant 0,2% of gross domestic product. Algeria, Colombia, India and Pakistan were the main export markets.

Agreements with unsavoury dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe will soon take priority over our constitution and the rights of citizens to information about the activities of Denel as a parastatal enterprise.

The National Conventional Arms Control Bill passed by the National Assembly on August 20 and now awaiting President Thabo Mbeki's signature threatens the media and / or citizens of 20 years' imprisonment should they divulge illegal activities by government and / or the armaments industry. The pressure exerted by the executive on Parliament has confirmed that the party list systems of the African National Congress (ANC) has turned parliamentarians into lapdogs instead of watchdogs.

Tens of billions of taxpayers' funds were squandered on the armaments industry during the apartheid era. The late Oliver Tambo called it a "Frankenstein monster that cannot be reformed and which must be destroyed". Yet once in office the ANC leadership decided the armaments industry was a national asset instead of a financial and ethical disaster. It is an industry out of control, notorious for corruption and malpractices.

Religious leaders ask how they can console mothers whose children have been killed with an explanation that making the bullet provided someone with a job. Medical leaders say that costs of treating bullet wounds are wreaking havoc with their hospital budgets.

SA's short-lived democracy is about to become another of the armaments industry's casualties. Why?

With acknowledgements to Terry Crawford-Browne and Business Day.