Publication: The Citizen Issued: Date: 2007-06-08 Reporter: Paul Kirk

More Arms Deal Court Action Due

 

Publication 

The Citizen

Date

2007-06-08

Reporter

 Paul Kirk

Web Link

 www.citizen.co.za

 

Arms deal whistle-blower Richard Young, whose company lost out on the combat suite contract for the new navy corvette to Schabir Shaik, yesterday told The Citizen he was poised to launch two new court actions against the government and French arms giant Thales (previously Thomson-CSF).

His new actions may force President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Jacob Zuma to defend themselves in court.
Young said his first new claim is based on evidence that emerged during the Shaik trial that the then Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, held secret meetings with Thomson- CSF officials in Paris. At one of these meetings it was alleged in court that Mbeki guaranteed the deal to French arms company Thales, then known as Thomson-CSF.

Mbeki headed the Ministerial Committee into the Arms Deal, but had no right to give such an undertaking before the deal was signed as there was a formal acquisition process to go through, as required by the Constitution and Armscor’s tender procedures.

Young said the Shaik trial had alerted him to ways his company was prejudiced by way of irregularities, corruption and fraud in the arms acquisition deal.

Young said he was not aware until the trial that he may have been the victim of more than one act of fraud and corruption. He launched an action against the Department of Defence for R150m. This action is a result of Young’s claim he was unfairly denied a contract to supply components for the corvette combat suite despite the fact he won the tender.

Young said in addition to the case against Mbeki he was considering a further claim for damages in relation to a joint venture he entered into with British Aerospace, only to have BAe pull out of the joint venture. He said his company and its partners, including BAe, had offered the only system that was fully compliant with the specifications of the SA Navy. They were also within budget and expected the deal to come their way, until BAe suddenly pulled out of the venture after millions had been spent.

Young said that after pulling out, BAe executives ignored his calls and he was mystified why he had been dropped by BAe.
This contract went to Thales – even though they were more expensive and had an inferior product that did not comply with the requirements the Navy had written into the tender. Young said he now realised there was a very good chance that BAe were ordered by Zuma to back off.

Judge Squires ruled that he accepted that Defence Acquisitions Chief Chippy Shaik called Schabir in a panic and demanded Schabir have Zuma intervene on his behalf. This call was made at the exact time the French arms giant discovered they had serious competition in this bid.

Schabir then called Zuma and within days BAe pulled out – costing Young’s company hundreds of millions of rands.

With acknowledgements to Paul Kirk and The Citizen.