South Africa's Anglican leaders have rebuked President Nelson Mandela's government for selling weapons on the international market and for buying military equipment with money which, the Church leaders say, is badly needed to alleviate poverty and to pay for social services like health and education.

The rebuke was made in a memorandum presented by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican Primate, to the chairman of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, Professor Kader Asmal in Cape Town on 21 August. In the memorandum, drawn up by leaders of the (Anglican) Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA), the Church expressed astonishment that after the apartheid struggle, the South African government was willing to sell arms enabling foreign leaders to suppress human rights.

Professor Asmal is a cabinet minister in the Mandela government. His committee was set up to oversee and control the country's arms trade, and ensure it was conducted responsibly with respect for human rights.

The statement was made soon after a visit by South Africa's Defence Minister, Joe Modise, to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to promote arms sales from South Africa. Archbishop Ndungane said in the statement: "I, as Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, have opposed the sale of arms to Syria and to Rwanda, among others, and seriously questioned the continued promotion of the South African armaments industry."

With several major civil wars on the African continent having recently ended and others still threatening, transparency in the arms trade was of the greatest importance, the statement said.

"It is a matter of disquiet that as a country which has placed great emphasis on the protection of human rights, we do not mind enabling ambitious rulers in other countries to obtain arms in order to deny rights to their subjects or to threaten their neighbours."

The sale of obsolete equipment by South Africa to foreign powers was inexcusable, the Church leaders said in the statement. The statement called on the government to destroy any other obsolete weapons it had in stock and might be tempted to sell.

"The CPSA is also appalled at the prospect that the South African government is apparently prepared to spend money, desperately needed for reconstruction and development projects, for the eradication of poverty, for education, health and welfare schemes, among others, on the purchase of unnecessary military equipment."

South Africa was not at war and there was no military or moral justification to warrant the expenditure which would be incurred if the government went ahead with major military purchases, the statement said.

"As a Church, we had hoped that members of a government, for so long on the receiving end of tough and violent actions that often accompany the acquisition of military equipment, would understand the need to promote a balanced policy in its handling of military issues.

"We fear that we will see a return to the grotesque culture of the military that was so much part of 'the South African way of life' before 1994," the Church statement said. (The apartheid regime was replaced in the country's first democratic elections in 1994.)

South Africa should set an example to its neighbours and fellow African countries, as well as to the rest of the world, the statement said. Not only was it possible to achieve peace through negotiation and mediation, but also to maintain it without negative investments in the armaments industry, and the sale of arms to other countries.

"A fresh lead is required from government. Our war is over, and we thank God for this," the Church leaders said, referring to the anti-apartheid liberation struggle and the former regime's attempts to crush its opponents.

"We need to move away from the culture of the military society which for so many years retarded our economic, social, moral and spiritual growth. It would be irresponsible for us to promote any actions that would cause further damage to our country, region or continent, or which could be construed in any way as advancing the cause of war, crime and violence," the statement concluded.