Statement
Eddie Trent MP
Spokesperson
Democratic Alliance

Last week, President Mbeki again evaded my question in Parliament over whether or not he met with representatives of the French arms company Thomson-CSF on or about 17 December 1998.
 
The President has failed to either confirm or deny that he was at the meeting, providing only the dubious and inexplicable answer that he does “not recall such a meeting”. Previously, the DA has tried to get the President to answer this simple question via a Member’s statement, a letter to the Presidency and a written and oral question. All avenues pursued by the DA to date have now been either blocked or ignored.
 
This leaves me with no choice but to source the facts from elsewhere. I have today written to Mrs Barbara Masekela, the former Ambassador of South Africa to France, to ask whether she arranged the meeting in Paris between representatives of Thomson CSF and President Mbeki.
 
The DA has in its possession a fax from B. de Bollardiere (Senior Vice President of Thomson-CSF) to Ambassador Masekela. that suggests that this is the case. In this fax de Bollardiere thanks Ambassador Masekela for arranging a meeting between the “Deputy President of your government, Mr Thabo Mbeki with Messrs Jean-Paul Perrier, Michel Denis and myself.”
 
If Ambassador Masekela confirms that she arranged such a meeting then the DA will have good grounds to accuse the President of misleading parliament.
 
More importantly, the Scorpions will have good grounds to open an investigation into President Mbeki’s involvement in the Arms Deal. A secret meeting with Thompson-CSF – one of the bidders for the procurement package – would have amounted to a gross violation of tender procedures.

Rumours that President Mbeki played a dubious part in the Arms Deal will continue to persist until the truth comes out. I am confident that Mrs Masekela, as the former Ambassador to France who appears to have arranged the meeting, will be in a position to jog the President’s memory.

With acknowledgements to Eddie Trent and the DA.