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- Before the Second World War South Africa did not really have any defence industry. During the nineteenth century there were three generations of the Botha family in Cape Town who were renowned gunsmiths and during the First Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) damaged Boer artillery pieces were repaired in the workshops of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Spoorwegmaatschappij.
During the Second World War (1939-1945) more advanced weaponry and equipment was manufactured locally by South African companies under the auspices of Dr HJ van der Bijl, the Director-General of War Supplies. This included armoured cars, mortars and howitzers as well as some grenades, mines and bombs. However this was for the duration of the War only.
Colonel William Gall Driver served the South African Air Force and was awarded, O.B.E. somewhere in Italy.
In October 1948 an Advisory Committee on Union Defence Force Equipment Requirements was appointed. The Chairman was Mr FJ du Toit. This date may therefore be regarded as the birth of the Armaments Corporation of South Africa. (Armscor). The Committee's brief was to investigate South Africa's manufacturing of war material. The following year, in October 1949, the Advisory Committee's status was raised to that of a Board, and its name changed to the Defence Resources Board. Its brief remained the same, but the raised status enabled it to negotiate on an equal footing with industry, the Department of Defence and other bodies.
In March of 1950 Col. WG Driver was appointed Chief Executive Officer of this Board, his function being to ensure that the Board's decisions were executed. Towards the end of 1950 the Board's brief was expanded to include standardisation and the promotion of the local manufacturing of war supplies.
On 6 October 1951, a permanent structure known as the Defence Production Office was created within the Department of Defence, and Col Driver was appointed Director. He was assisted by seven technical and eight administrative officials. The Office was to serve as the main link between the Department and local industry, and would serve as the nucleus of an acquisition organisation should a war emergency arise. However, the acquisition of major defence equipment was at that stage still the responsibility of the Union Defence Force itself - the Defence Production Office was seen only as a channel through which locally manufactured equipment could be obtained.
At this stage it was decided to erect an ordnance workshop which could serve as a centre of expertise in the manufacturing and maintenance of military hardware. BSA, a British company, was contracted to set up such a workshop in Lyttelton, near Pretoria. It would later become the well-known Lyttelton Engineering Works.
After the Second World War a new political climate prevailed internationally. During 1963 the United Nations called on all member countries to institute specific measures against South Africa - including an arms embargo. Starting in 1964 a number of Western countries at the request of the Security Council, instituted voluntary arms embargoes against RSA.
These developments made it obvious that the manufacturing and acquisition of armaments, and thus the readiness of the SA Defence Force, could become a problem. At the beginning of 1964 a Commission chaired by Mr DJC Steyn was appointed to investigate the situation, and the commission's findings culminated in the Defence Production Act of 1964. This act provided for the Defence Production Office, the Ordnance Workshop and the ammunition division of the South African Mint to be placed under the Munitions Production Board as an autonomous body, independent of the Civil Service and the Department of Defence. The Service's bureaucracy and red tape were regarded as not conducive to the effective functioning of an armaments acquisition organisation. This laid the foundation on which the south African defence industry was to function for the next thirty-odd years. Dr HJ van Eck was appointed the first Chairman of the Board with Mr JP Coetzee as General Manager.
During April 1968 the name of the Munitions Production Board was changed to the Armaments Board, and it was allowed to have it's own tender organisation instead of having to work through the State Tender Board. It was to be responsible for research and development projects, the acquisition of equipment for the security forces, and for quality control. Mr GJ Malan was the first General Manager. In that same year the Armaments Development and Production Corporation of South Africa Ltd (Armscor) were formed, with Prof HJ Samuels acting as Chairman of both organisations.
William Gall Driver retired to his farm called West Haddon in the district of Mooi Nooi near to Rustenberg.
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