South Africa has blocked the delivery of 50,000 artillery shells to Poland that were manufactured in the South African subsidiary of the German armaments firm Rheinmetall Denel.
The contract, which was to supply 155mm munitions, was signed with Poland shortly after the start of the NATO conflict against Russia in Ukraine in February 2022. It was supposed to be part of Poland’s plan to amass 1 million such shells for its own military, but suspicion was clearly generated that the armaments would end up in Ukraine, violating South Africa’s policy of not sending weapons to the Kiev regime.
