Rhodesian tankers with a round from their Polish-made T-55D MBT. The equipment was taken from the Astor, a civilian French-flagged merchant ship operated by commercial mariners, and South Africa subsequently gave it to Rhodesia. Under Botha, sanctioned ARMSCOR and DMI maintained active gray-market shipping channels, French maritime links, and international arms brokers. South Africa had acquired zero-mileage Soviet armor in what appeared to be a brief moment of double dealing with the USSR. Durban was South Africa’s most heavily guarded military and commercial port, making the circumstances particularly notable. A commercial freighter carrying ten main battle tanks, re-consigned to Angola—South Africa’s active enemy in the Border War—does not simply “wander” into Durban by mistake. Hence, contemporary criticism suggested a direct back-channel transaction between Moscow and Pretoria, something that would have made Washington furious, particularly as Washington already maintained its own back-door channel to Moscow dating back to the Carter era.
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