Cape Town - President Thabo Mbeki, in his strongest denial so far, has rejected “rumours” that he had improper and corrupt meetings with French arms dealers bidding for a share in the multibillion-rand arms deal.

The president has come under fire for failing to give details of meetings with Thomson CSF, which made a successful R1,6bn bid to supply combat suites for navy corvettes.

He has said he could not recall such meetings in 1998.

In late July, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad tried to end the saga by saying the meetings were of no significance and told Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Eddie Trent: “We have no intention of engaging further with you on this matter as it is evident your interest is the media attention you seek to attract.”

During presidential question time yesterday, the attack came from a different quarter, with United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa using Mbeki’s replies on issues of corruption to ask if he would endorse a parliamentary investigation into the meetings he apparently held and into any possible impropriety on his part.

Holomisa also mentioned the inquiry by German prosecutors into the possibility of corruption in the arms deal.

Mbeki responded that it would be up to Parliament to decide on such an investigation because he did not have veto powers over the workings of the national legislature.

“We can predict that you are not going to find this corruption that you are fishing for. You will not find anything at all and then there will be another rumour,” Mbeki said. “There is no substance to these allegations, none whatsoever.”

Mbeki urged Holomisa to contact the German prosecutors he had mentioned, and predicted they would be puzzled by the questions. “But go and ask them.”

In response to a question from DA chief whip Douglas Gibson, the president also flatly rejected any suggestions that government had failed to ensure that senior African National Congress (ANC) members involved in the Oilgate scandal and in the Travelgate fraud case had been protected in the investigation.

He said he was not a judge, but that he and all South Africans wanted to see a speedy conclusion to the two issues. He stressed that Travelgate was before the courts and so it was inappropriate to discuss it in detail.

In response to another question, from DA leader Tony Leon, Mbeki rejected suggestions that the succession race in the ANC was having a negative effect on the operations of government.

Even when Leon quoted from a Sunday Times story quoting Mbeki as saying the succession was paralysing service delivery, the president said there had been no effect on government.

He lashed out at Leon, saying that Leon did not accept the answer given — that government was unaffected by the succession struggle — because Leon did not want to look at the totality of government performance because he was unhappy that the government was succeeding.

Leon also suggested that the firing of former National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masethla for using his office to influence the succession struggle in favour of Jacob Zuma showed that the issue was “at the heart of governance”. Mbeki rejected this.

He also denied that the rough reception given to Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at a recent trade union conference had carried over into relations with organised labour.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.