Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2006-07-20 Reporter: Boyd Webb Reporter: Reporter:

DA to Press SA Envoy to Disclose if Meeting with Arms Dealers Took Place

 

Publication 

Cape Times
Date

2006-07-20

Reporter

Boyd Webb

Web Link

www.capetimes.co.za

 

Pretoria : Democratic Alliance MP Eddie Trent is to write another letter to South African envoy Barbara Masekela today in his quest to establish if President Thabo Mbeki met representatives of arms company Thomson-CSF in France while the arms deal negotiations were under way.

Trent said he was writing a second letter as he had received no response from Masekela's office to a letter sent a month ago.
He has also submitted numerous questions in parliament asking Mbeki to say whether he had such a meeting.

Masekela was ambassador to France in 1998. She is now ambassador to the US.

Trent is attempting to establish is there is substance to an allegation, made in parliament by then-Pan African Congress MP Patricia de Lille, that a "senior" member of the government travelled to France in December 1998.

De Lille, who said she was citing sources close to the arms deal negotiations, told parliament that there had been a meeting in France with members of Thomson-CSF.

The question has since been raised whether the senior government member might have been Mbeki.

During the arms negotiations, Mbeki chaired a ministerial subcommittee responsible for approving the defence acquisition package..

He has said he cannot recall any meeting in France with representatives of Thomson-CSF, later called Thales International.
The company's South African subsidiary, Thint, and former deputy president Jacob Zuma are facing charges of corruption.

Earlier this month, controversy erupted afresh over the awarding of the contract to build four corvettes to a German consortium.

The German media reported that Dusseldorf prosecutors were investigating whether DM30 million had been paid to South African politicians to secure the corvette deal.

Mbeki has said the multibillion-rand arms deal was concluded "by the book" and the auditor-general had found there had been no wrongdoing by the government *1.

The National Prosecuting Authority has declined to probe the German allegations. A spokesman said no new information had been presented. *2

With acknowledgements to Boyd Webb and Cape Times.


*1       This was not the initial conclusion of the Auditor-General as documented in all of the draft JIT Reports up until it was submitted for review to Mbeki, as well as Minsters Lekota, Erwin and Manuel in early October 2001, some six weeks before the final version was published on 14 November 2001.

The documentary record shows that this conclusion was demanded to be included in the final version and that the Auditor-General and his fellow stooges acceded to this demand.


*2      This is not strictly true. There is existing evidence and further evidence that indicate prima facie questionable conduct by Mbeki in the corvette acquisition process. Satisfactory explanations are required from him to show that such conduct was not unlawful.

Failing the provision of such satisfactory explanations is a valid ground for further investigations by the NPA.

But it appears that the NPA is fearful of seeking such explanations.