THE former chairman of the Irish Anti Apartheid Movement, Dr Kader Asmal, is at the centre of a controversy over the marketing of a South African manufactured tank firing control system to Syria.
The marketing of the tank firing mechanism the first step towards their sale to the regime of President Hafez al Assad - has drawn sharp reaction from the US and criticism from South African opposition parties. President Mandela has attempted to defuse the issue.
Dr Asmal, now Minister of Water Affairs, is the chairman of the National Convention Arms Control Committee, which recommended a South African company be given the go ahead to market military hardware in Syria.
The recommendation, in the face of opposition from the Department of Foreign Affairs but reportedly with the support of the Defence Ministry, has been provisionally approved by the cabinet. The proviso is that Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who was away in India at the time, should first be consulted. Mr Mbeki is due to formally report back to cabinet next Wednesday.
In the meantime, however, details of the recommendation and the provisional approval have been leaked to the media and become a major issue, with US government spokesmen warning that if military equipment is sold to Syria, US aid to South Africa - said to run into "billions of rands" - will be suspended automatically.
The US classifies Syria as one of seven states which sponsor terrorism. Dr Asmal has refused to comment since the information was leaked, defending his silence by first saying that the matter is not (officially) in the "public domain" and then by noting (to The Irish Times) that it had been referred to the cabinet.
What puzzles observers is why Dr Asmal's committee recommended that the company, Denel, be allowed to market its military merchandise in Syria, given Syria's denial of human rights to its citizens and the committee's commitment to the protection of such rights.
There is concern in South Africa, Israel and the US that the sale of tank firing control mechanisms developed by South Africa with Israel's help during the 1980s - will enable Syria to update its large but outdated force of Soviet-made T-72 tanks.