Johannesburg - Weapons ordered from China for the Zimbabwe government arrived in Harare despite an international boycott, media reports said Saturday. According to South Africa's SAPA news agency, the government in Zimbabwe confirmed that 3 million rounds of automatic weapons ammunition, 3,000 mortar rounds and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades had arrived.
Some media reports accused the South African government of assisting the delivery of the munitions by fuelling at sea the Chinese freighter An Yue Yiang that was carrying the goods. The vessel then unloaded at the Pointe Noire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The South African government denied the accusations, saying the ship landed in Angola and the weapons were flown into land-locked Zimbabwe via an Ilyushi Il-76 to Harare.
In mid-April, the An Yue Yiang was due to unload weapons in Durban, South Africa for transit to Zimbabwe by road.
The shipment was paid for in January, two months before Zimbabwe's disputed elections, but the timing of the delivery, coming amid mounting reports of "revenge" attacks by supporters of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF on supporters of the rival Movement for Democratic Change, raised fears the weapons could be used against civilians.
Dockworkers in Durban and around the region had refused or threatened to refuse to offload the cargo, saying to do so given the escalating tensions in post-elections Zimbabwe would be irresponsible.
