Publication: The Citizen Issued: Date: 2005-12-21 Reporter: Paul Kirk Reporter: Reporter:

Mauritius Nightmare for Zuma?

 

Publication 

The Citizen
Date 2005-12-21

Reporter

Paul Kirk

 

Potentially damning documents seized in a top-secret raid on the Mauritius headquarters of a French arms company will decide former Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s fate.

The documents are presently held in a high security vault by the Mauritius government – and will be the subject of a court case in March, when Zuma’s lawyers and those acting for Thint, the French arms company accused of having bribed him, will try to deny prosecutors the use of the documents.

Among the documents are several items of evidence that Zuma had a meeting in Durban with Alain Thetard, the former Managing Director of Thales (SA) – the company that changed its name to Thint. It was at this meeting that a bribe was allegedly requested by Zuma.

Thetard is presently on the run, with investigators from the Scorpions keen to arrest him on corruption charges. When asked in parliament about Thetard, Zuma denied having met the man in Durban or elsewhere.

The Scorpions did not have access to the documents during the Shaik trial because Thales, as Thint was called then, brought an urgent court application in Mauritius to demand the documents be returned.

This demand was eventually dropped and the matter settled out of court in 2003. The deal was that, while the Mauritius ICAC would not hand the documents over to Thales, they would promise that the documents would not be sent to South Africa unless a Mauritius judge ordered they be handed over.

The documents include original copies of financial statements, notes, minutes of meetings and company as well as personal diaries recording meetings between company executives and politicians.

The documents were seized more than four years ago when the ICAC’s predecessor, the Economic Crimes Unit of the Mauritius Police was ordered by the Mauritius High Court to assist South African investigators from the Scorpions.

This court order was obtained after the lead investigator in the arms deal case, Gerda Fereira, brought an application in the Mauritius courts asking to be allowed to search the offices of companies involved in South Africa’s R60 Billion arms acquisition deal.

After the raids on Thint’s offices and Thetard’s home small extracts of some of the documents were copied and handed to the South Africans – but the original material remained in Mauritius, where it has been untouched.

During the trial of Schabir Shaik some of the extracts copied from these records were used in evidence after Shaik’s defence agreed that they would accept the copies and not demand to see the originals.

Yesterday however Michael Hulley, Zuma’s lawyer, said: “During the Shaik trial the defence agreed to allow these copies. I don’t see that we or the French will accept copies. We will be meeting on the 23rd to discuss these documents and whether we will oppose an application to have these documents admitted.”

According to Hulley a court date had been set for March to argue whether or not the documents held in Mauritius would be admissible.

If the Durban High Court decides that the documents are admissible, and the judge agrees to call for the documents, an application would be brought in the Mauritius High Court for the documents to be released. If a Mauritius judge agrees then the mass of documents will be handed over.

Hulley said he understood that attorneys for the French arms company Thint would be bringing an application to have the matter struck off the roll.

Suresh Ram, a spokesman for the ICAC said he could not comment on the details of the matter.

The Scorpions were not able to comment at the time of going to press.

With acknowledgements to Paul Kirk and The Citizen.