African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni has responded to allegations of corruption surrounding his acquisition of a luxury Mercedes Benz 4X4 in a full-page statement in the Sunday Independent newspaper.

He said allegations that he had received the car free as a bribe to further certain bidders' interests in the R43-billion arms procurement deal were indicative of a racist witchhunt as he bought the car through a legitimate process.

Yengeni said he had decided to respond to the allegations regarding the car "precisely because the frenzy and slander that accompanied the commentary by various commentators is not only unprecedented in the history of witchhunting in this country but also, and more importantly, elevated my car issue to a major scandal of national and international proportions without any shred of evidence of wrongdoing on the part of anyone".

"The issue of racism reared its ugly head once more, it clearly motivated some of the worst forms of McCarthyism during this whole frenzy and witchhunt."

'I am a Mercedes Benz fan'

As to how he got the car, Yengeni said Michael Woefel, the managing director at that time of a military aircraft manufacturing company, DASA, recommended to him in 1998 that he consider purchasing the new Mercedes ML 4X4, which was soon to be launched in South Africa.

"He mentioned to me that having a person of my calibre driving the Mercedes ML model will do much to market their product. Convincing me was not a difficult task as I am a Mercedes Benz fan."

On October 15, 1998, Yengeni said he had entered into a written sale agreement with DASA. The main terms of the agreement were that the purchase price of the car was R230 052 and that payment of the full price was due on or before May 1, 1999.

He said it was mentioned to him that the car was damaged and that caused delivery to take a little longer as the vehicle had to be repaired. The invoices issued reflected the damage. On January 7, 1999, Yengeni said he approached Stannic for finance.

"This clearly indicates that the suggestion that it was only after publication of the allegations that I sought finance is untrue. I have in my possession a copy of the application papers submitted to Stannic and I have written confirmation of the delivery thereto to Stannic."

That application was unsuccessful so Yengeni then approached Mercedes Benz Finance (Pty) Ltd in February 1999 and on May 28 entered into a finance agreement with them. He paid a deposit to the seller of R50 000 and Mercedes Benz financed him to the extent of R182 663,64. To service the loan, he pays monthly instalments that will continue up until June 1, 2004.

Yengeni said the sale agreement between himself and DASA was quite legitimate and complied with standard business practices. Allegations that the finance agreement was entered into as a cover-up were false, he said.

Media reports that he bought the car for a discount of 47 percent were also false.

Allegations that as chairman of the joint committee on defence he received the car as a bribe to influence the award of contracts in the arms deal were "a total misrepresentation of the truth".

"This committee played no role whatsoever in the procurement process of the military equipment for the (SA) National Defence Force." That was exclusively an executive function of the Cabinet.

"As I was not a Cabinet member I never played any role in the award of any of the contracts. The committee, as well, never played any role in the procurement process.

"I never played any role in the award of any of the contracts," he said.

Yengeni said that he knew DASA had put in a tender to supply military aircrafts, which it lost. Thereafter DASA approached the successful bidders and formed joint ventures with other military manufacturing companies for sub-contracting purposes.

"I had no involvement in the said sub-contracts."

Political parties and others who had sought to exploit these "wild and unsubstantiated allegations" had damaged the image of South Africa internationally, he said.

"The biggest casualty in all this is neither myself nor my party the ANC as was intended, but rather South Africa and its people." 

With acknowledgment to Sapa and Independent Online.