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South Africa: Mbeki May Sue Over Arms Deal Allegations
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
7 August 2008
Posted to the web 7 August 2008
Linda Ensor
Cape Town
President Thabo Mbeki was yesterday in danger of being snared in a legal quagmire related to the arms deal, which has plagued his term of office from the start.
The legal tentacles gathering around the president involve not only the Pietermaritzburg trial of African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma but also the Presidency's threats of legal action against the Sunday Times.
Zuma warned this week that he would call witnesses if and when charges of fraud and corruption against him went to trial, and that "the truth will be revealed". I t is believed these witnesses would include Mbeki.
Mbeki has sought legal advice on behalf of himself and the government on what action to take against the Sunday Times for what he says are "spurious" allegations this week that he facilitated a R30m kickback from the arms deal.
The newspaper reported that a UK risk consultancy had said Mbeki received a kickback from MAN Ferrostaal, which led the German Submarine Consortium and which won the contract to sell three submarines to the SA Navy, for more than R6bn.
The newspaper said that R28m of the kickback was channelled into ANC coffers and R2m was paid to Zuma. Should Mbeki sue the newspaper, the case would open up the controversial R30bn strategic arms acquisition to the microscopic legal scrutiny it has eluded for the past decade.
However, if Mbeki decides not to act against the newspaper it could be seen as deeply incriminating.
Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad refused to speculate on these possibilities, saying only that "once the legal advice is given, the Presidency will take the steps it has to take".
Pahad, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and justice department director-general Menzi Simelane held a media conference yesterday to reinforce Mbeki's denial of the "scurrilous" allegations and to restate the integrity of the government's actions concerning the arms purchases.
Pahad repeated Mbeki's categoric denial that he facilitated the donation of any money to the ANC or Zuma from arms contractors.
Erwin said the allegations were "highly prejudicial" to the government, the president and to cabinet ministers.
Questioned about whether any funds at all were channelled to the ANC by arms contractors, Erwin was prepared only to state that no payments of any kind were imposed by the government on the contractors, formally or informally.
Whether the ANC received any money was an "impossible" question to answer, he said, because "what the companies did in their own right, if they did anything, we cannot be held accountable for".
Erwin rejected calls by opposition parties for a judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of arms-deal corruption, which have persisted since the late 1990s when the deal was signed.
He said there was no sound basis for this as an extensive investigation by a joint investigating team had already been conducted, and it had found that there had been no improper conduct by the government and that there was no evidence that the tendering process was flawed.
"Rehashed" allegations were no reason to institute another inquiry as no new and substantive information had come to light, Erwin said.
Erwin also rejected the notion of an amnesty for offences related to the arms deal, saying this would make sense only if there was concrete evidence that someone actually did something wrong.
He urged those who claimed to have evidence of wrongdoing to take it to the authorities.
Erwin reiterated the government's conviction that the decision to buy the arms was correct, and that the national industrial participation benefits that had been promised as part of the deal were well on track.
Voluminous documentation that was easy to obtain showed that the allegation that Mbeki ensured preference was given to German over Spanish bidders in return for the kickbacks lacked foundation.
Simelane was at pains to deny claims that the government had dug in its heels on co-operating with the German and British investigations into arms deal irregularities.
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Formal processes regarding their requests for assistance were under way when both investigations were terminated, he said.
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