The South Africa National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) on Monday rejected claims made by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) regarding South African arms sales to Haiti.

In a statement, the NCACC said it had approved the sale of "a modest amount of material," as well as bulletproof vests, for the police force of the Haitian government to assist in maintaining safety and security.

"Accusations of impropriety by the DA's (federal council chairman) James Selfe, as reported in the press, are simply untrue," according to the statement.

Earlier on Monday, Selfe said the DA was using the Promotion ofAccess to Information Act to "get to the bottom of the Haiti arms shipment fiasco".

The statement said "first, Selfe claims that the NCACC did not apply the criteria of the (National Conventional Arms Control) Act.This claim is false. When we reviewed the request from the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), a legitimate regional body representing fifteen nations, we applied the relevant criteria of the act."

It said "reviewing arms sales on a case-by-case basis, as the act requires, we found that this case met the standards of contributing to regional security, which was the basis of the request from CARICOM, and the protection of the national sovereignty of a member country of the United Nations with a democratically-elected government."

Selfe claimed the NCACC did not observe the provisions of the act prohibiting the sale of arms to countries that systematically violated human rights or systematically repressed freedom.