Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2005-12-16 Reporter: Angela Quintal Reporter:

Mbeki 'Does Not Recall' Encounter over Arms Deal

 

Publication 

Cape Argus

Date

2005-12-16

Reporter

 Angela Quintal

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

President Thabo Mbeki has told parliament he does not recall whether he met representatives of a French arms company implicated in alleged corruption in the arms deal and whose South African subsidiary faces prosecution along with axed deputy president Jacob Zuma.

He was replying in writing to a question from DA MP Eddie Trent. It was buried in a slew of replies published by parliament's questions office yesterday a day after MPs went on their annual holiday.

"The president does not recall such a meeting," Mbeki's reply says.

"However, in the course of his duties as president of the Republic of South Africa and previously as deputy president, the president has met and interacted with a large number of business people and representatives of business entities."

The president's reply comes at the end of a six-month battle *1 by DA MP Eddie Trent to establish whether Mbeki, when he was still deputy president, did in fact meet executives of Thomson-CSF on or about December 17, 1998.

Trent was ordered out of the National Assembly in June after he was ruled out of order by Deputy Speaker Gwen Mahlangu for asking if Mbeki had acted irregularly in the early stages of the arms deal.

Trent had refused to withdraw a statement in which he asked if Mbeki had secretly and irregularly given assurances to Thomson-CSF.

The MP's question was based on two faxes from Thomson-CSF, both of which named Mbeki.

The first, an encrypted fax, was part of the court record of the trial of Schabir Shaik, who was convicted of fraud and found to have had a generally corrupt relationship with Jacob Zuma.

It referred to a person called "the Taileur" (tailor in French) which Trent alleged referred to Shaik's brother, Chippy, then chief of acquisitions for the Department of Defence.

Trent focused on a section in the fax where the tailor was quoted as saying Mbeki was very satisfied with the company's bid and that he had obtained Mbeki's assurance that the company would be awarded the contract for a combat system and sensors.

The other fax, subject of both an oral question (which was disallowed by Speaker Baleka Mbete) and subsequently a written question by Trent, indicated that Mbeki had met Thomson CSF executives in France in December 1998.

The fax was by Thomson-CSF senior vice-president B de Bollardiere to Mbeki and confirmed they had met.

Mbeki was deputy president at the time and headed the ministerial committee overseeing the arms deal.

At the time of the fall-out in parliament about the letter, written by Zuma as leader of government business in parliament, speculation was rife that Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad or the president's legal adviser, Mojanku Gumbi, had drafted the letter.

However, Zuma apparently alleged that although he had signed the letter, it had actually been written by Mbeki, working with ministers.

Speaking from his home in Port Elizabeth last night, Trent said: "The president should seriously jolt his memory given the fact that he may be called to testify."

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal and Cape Argus.


*1  It's not the end of the battle because Mbeki has not provided full and truthful answer to Mr Trent's questions.

But it is now both the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end.

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