Government credibility 'falls apart'

The government has no intention of blacklisting the French arms company that allegedly bribed ex-Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

The National Treasury said yesterday that there had been no evidence *1 in the recent Schabir Shaik trial linking Zuma to a bribe from Thomson-CSF or its subsidiaries in South Africa, Thint and Thales.

Since details of the arms deal scandal first emerged, Thales has been appointed one of the sub-contractors to provide a R16 billion ground-based air defence system (GBADS) for South Africa.

Thales's portion of the contract is believed to be worth about R2bn, arms industry sources said.

Treasury spokesman Logan Wort was adamant yesterday that no grounds existed for even considering blacklisting the company *1.

"Regarding the link between Thales and the deputy president, we will only look at that if a court makes a link *2 between the deputy president and Thomson, so there's no link for us to look at," Wort said.

When asked if this meant Thomson-CSF or its subsidiaries would face the possibility of blacklisting only if Zuma was successfully prosecuted, he said: "My comment is that there's no case against the deputy president, the former deputy president, that has been made, so there's no case for us to explain regarding a link between Thomson and the deputy president," he said.

This was despite Justice Hilary Squires finding last week that Zuma had attended a meeting with Shaik and Thint representative Alain Thetard. They agreed at that meeting, Judge Squires found, to pay Zuma R500 000 a year in exchange for Zuma's promise to protect their interests in the arms deal.

Terry Crawford-Browne, the head of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, was dismayed at the response: "It's appalling that the government keeps blocking this. Here they have been caught with their fingers in the cookie jar and it shouldn't be for civil society to keep fighting them.

"This is where their credibility falls apart. Are they serious about fighting corruption? Why is it that they fight every step of the way instead of being proactive in ensuring clean government?" he asked.

Although a clause in the arms deal allows the government to cancel the deal if corruption is uncovered, arms deal analysts are of the broad opinion that the corvette deal - which incorporated African Defence Systems, a Thint subsidiary, is too far advanced for it to be reversed.

However, Crawford-Browne, believes the entire deal should be cancelled because "like in Watergate, the cover up is becoming worse than the scandal".

Thint's South African representative, Pierre Moynot, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Neither of the local arms parastatals that deal with Thomson - Armscor and Denel - were willing to discuss the issue of its continued presence in South Africa.

India, on the other hand, has adopted a far more confrontational approach to arms dealers who try to bribe their officials.

Denel, which is the prime GBADS contractor, had a contract to supply 160 G6 self-propelled field guns cancelled by the Indian government, which is investigating accusations that Denel paid bribes to win the deal.

Denel spokesman Eddie Mkuchane denied Denel ever bribed officials. "We always act within the law," he said.

Ironically, Denel faces being pushed off the field gun deal by Swedish firm Bofors, which became embroiled in a major scandal of its own in the mid-1980s, resulting in India blacklisting it until very
recently.

With acknowledgements to Alameen Templeton and the Cape Times.

*1        On which planet do these characters live?

*2        The court has made the link.