Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2006-11-14 Reporter: Patricia de Lille Reporter:

Two Crooks Down ... More To Go

 

Publication 

Cape Times
Date

2006-11-14

Reporter

 Patricia de Lille

Web Link

www.capetimes.co.za

 

Convictions in arms deal cases vindicate Dossier

It has been a very long road for me, this arms deal saga. I was branded a "useful idiot" and accused of telling "blatant lies" after my exposure of the arms deal corruption, but I have stuck to my guns. Now, after Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik's convictions, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Their convictions should be a warning to South Africans that crime doesn't pay. However, throughout the arms deal saga, I have never meant ill towards individuals who have been accused and convicted, but have remained faithful to the cause of creating a South African identity and culture that is corruption-free.

My campaign began in September 1999, when I moved a motion in parliament calling for a commission of inquiry into the suspicious circumstances surrounding the arms deal. At the same time, I released the De Lille Dossier to the media. Then, in November of the same year, I submitted allegations of corruption to Judge Willem Heath, the head of the corruption-busting Heath Special Investigative Unit.

The dossier named senior ANC officials who allegedly received kick-backs from the deal, containing specific allegations on the amounts each had allegedly received and who offered them.

Without investigating my allegations, a number of ANC heavyweights accused me of being an opportunist. The government accused me of being unpatriotic. The press, on the other hand, had a field day with the dossier and the government was feeling the heat.

President Thabo Mbeki embarked on a long and painful journey of denial, even pronouncing on television that there was no evidence to suggest any corruption in the deal.

The first victim was Judge Heath, who was dismissed from his position, and his unit excluded from the arms deal investigation. This was particularly sad given that his unit was the only entity that had sufficient powers to cancel a government-signed contract, if it were established beyond any reasonable doubt that there was corruption in the tender process.

The government then had a brief respite until March 21, 2001, when South Africa awoke to a Sunday Times expose on how former ANC chief whip in parliament Tony Yengeni had received a massive discount on his four-wheel-drive vehicle from DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, a company awarded a slice of the arms deal.

The saga was back in full swing and Yengeni was consequently arrested by the Scorpions. His arrest signified my first vindication. The press a few weeks later reported Yengeni was one of 21 people who had received discounts - though not as significant as Yengeni's - from the same company. It was then that I started to receive deaths threats. Some of my sources in the De Lille Dossier were also harassed.

Meanwhile, the cracks within the ANC created by the arms deal began to widen. Andrew Feinstein, a senior ANC MP, resigned from parliament in August 2001, citing his unhappiness with the manner in which the government was handling the deal. The ANC initially fired Feinstein on January 29, 2001, when, as the chairperson of the ANC's parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, he appealed to the government to launch a commission of inquiry into the deal.

Next, Gavin Woods, at that time an IFP MP and the chairperson of parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) - who was in agreement with Feinstein - resigned from Scopa in February, 2002, protesting about the government's shabby handling of the deal.

The former Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin fired Vivian Pillay after he was exposed as one of those who had received a discount for a luxury car.

Next, Shamin "Chippy" Shaik, the government's acquisitions chief in the arms deal, resigned from his position shortly after he was arrested for alleged possession of a "classified government document". Chippy's brother, Schabir Shaik, was also arrested after he was accused of being behind a R500 000-a-year bribe offered to former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Zuma's controversial link with Schabir Shaik was exposed by the Scorpions in a confidential affidavit in their application to raid Nkobi Holdings - Shaik's company - and Thint's offices in Mauritius and the French capital, Paris.

Then, a few months ago, German journalists sent me proof that the German NPA was investigating a shipbuilder. Their arms deal story culminated in this article introduction in the German investigative magazine Der Spiegel: "The office of the public prosecutor in Dusseldorf is investigating an arms deal with South Africa involving a German shipbuilding consortium. It is possible that a 30 million Mark bribe may be involved."

When the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein dismissed Shaik's bid to appeal against his sentence, I could not help but feel a sense of pride that, with other whistleblowers, I have managed to send two powerful crooks with heavyweight political connections to jail - not bad for a "useful idiot".

The very same De Lille Dossier that was rubbished as "blatant lies" by the government was last week named by one of the Supreme Court of Appeal Judges as the foundation for one of the charges against Shaik.

Even though we have come a long way since my first allegations, so many questions remain unanswered. Mbeki allegedly had a meeting with the French arms company Thint - why his incessant claim that he "cannot recall" it? The meetings were allegedly facilitated by South Africa's former ambassador to France, Barbara Masekela.

At the time when the alleged meeting took place, Mbeki, who was then deputy president, was the chairperson of the inter-departmental committee *1 that was overseeing the arms deal.

Essop Pahad, the Minister in the Presidency, initially claimed that he could "not recall" any meeting with a representative of Thint. His memory later improved, though, when he remembered meeting with Alain Thetard, but he refused to elaborate on details of the meeting. Thetard is the author of the encrypted fax that motivated the alleged R500 000-a-year bribe for Zuma and there is currently a warrant of arrest out for him in South Africa. He refused to testify in the Shaik trial.

One more unanswered question is this: if the government has nothing to hide, why does it not launch a commission of inquiry?

Failing that, the Independent Democrats will continue to put the interests of the poor first, focusing on our anti-corruption campaign, so that our political and business leaders are constantly reminded of their duties to the people who give them their bread and butter. Two powerful crooks are down, but there are many more to go …

De Lille is an MP and leader of the Independent Democrats. This is an edited version of her weekly online column.

With acknowledgements to Patricia de Lille and Cape Times.


*1       The Big Fish.

Is Vusi strong enough?