The Democratic Alliance has written to President Thabo Mbeki asking him to answer questions about two encrypted faxes, concerning arms deal tenders, which the party had in its possession.

"The first of these faxes gives the impression that the president assured Thomson's executives (via Chippy Shaik) as early as 1997 that they would be awarded the combat suite contract," said Eddie Trent, DA MP and spokesman on the arms deal.

Trent said this implied the president had guaranteed Thomson the contract before the tender process was complete.

"I have asked the president to state whether or not such an assurance was given to Thomson. The second fax indicates that President Mbeki secretly met with Thomson executives in Paris in December 1998."

Trent said if such a meeting took place it would constitute a violation of accepted tender processes. "As chair of Mincom (ministerial committee of transport (sic) *1), the president was responsible for the final awarding of all the arms deal contracts." Trent said such a meeting would have created an enormous conflict of interest for Mbeki. "I have asked President Mbeki to state clearly whether a meeting of this nature did in fact take place."

He said he had also submitted parliamentary questions. The French arms manufacturer, Thales International (formerly Thomson-CSF) on Friday denied that Mbeki allegedly indicated the company would receive a contract. - Sapa.

With ackowledgements to Sapa and the Cape Argus.

*1 Ministerial Sub-Committee (MINCOM) consisting of :

Deputy President (Chairman) : Thabo Mbeki
Minister of Defence : Joe Modise then Mosioua Lekota
Deputy Minister of Defence : Ronnie Kasrils then Ms Mdladla-Routledge
Minister of Trade and Industry : Alec Erwin
Minister of Public Enterprises : Stella Stigcau then Jeff Radebe
Minister of Finance : Trevor Manuel
Chief of Acquisitions (Secretary) : Chippy Shaikh

MINCOM made the recommendations based on presentations, briefings and analyses from the Department of Defence, Armscor, Ministry of Finance, etc.

MINCOM in turn presented these recommendations to the Cabinet for final decisions.

It is strange and exceedingly irregular that MINCOM allowed Chippy Shaikh to not only act as secretary of MINCOM, but also to brief it, including on matters where he had a recorded conflict of interest and formal recusal.

But other than that, Chippy Shaikh changed the minutes of the MINCOM meeting in Durban to reflect that only the BAe Hawk should be declared the preferred supplier for the Lean-In Fighter Trainer (LIFT) whereas the recorded decision of the meeting was to choose both the Hawk and the Aermacchi MB339FD as going through to one final round of the selection process.

This appears to be procurement fraud on a grand scale.

The reason why it was done?

Because this is what Modise wanted - BAe at all costs.