Publication: The Witness Issued: Date: 2007-01-12 Reporter: Adriaan Basson Reporter:

ANC ‘Took Money in Arms Deal’

 

Publication 

The Witness
Date 2007-01-12

Reporter

 Adriaan Basson

Web Link

www.witness.co.za

 

Former ANC MP slams party, says it is ‘divided and weak’

A former senior ANC MP has lashed out at the ANC and once again accused it of receiving money from arms companies.

Andrew Feinstein, the ANC’s former representative in the parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), has written in an article in the British daily the Guardian that the ANC is “divided and weak” and a far cry from the party as it was under former president Nelson Mandela.

Feinstein resigned from the ANC and Parliament in 2001 after having been hauled over the coals because of his attitude towards the controversial R30 billion arms deal.

He was sacked at the time as the leader of the ANC’s parliamentary study group after having expressed his support in Scopa for an inquiry by the Heath investigative unit.

Feinstein, who currently lives in London, wrote his strongly-worded article shortly after it emerged that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is on its way to South Africa to investigate corruption related to the purchase of 24 Hawk training aircraft.

The SFO will receive assistance from the Scorpions in their investigation into the alleged bribery of former defence minister Joe Modise’s former adviser by BAE Systems.

In his article, Feinstein repeats earlier claims that the ANC received money from successful arms contractors and that Modise apparently accepted bribes amounting to millions of rands.

When he made these claims in 2004, the ANC denied that it benefited substantially from the arms deals and said Feinstein should either hand over proof to the authorities or keep quiet. An ANC spokesman yesterday sent the same reaction to Beeld.

According to Feinstein, he and other critics of the arms deal were not surprised by the SFO inquiry. “The deal, and the allegations of high-level corruption associated with it, continues to bedevil South African politics six years after the contracts were signed,” he writes.

Feinstein accuses President Thabo Mbeki and the ANC leadership of undermining an investigation by Scopa.

“While investigating the deal, I never heard allegations that Mbeki himself benefited from the deal, but was told by a senior ANC leader and other sources that the ANC received money from the successful bidders, possibly to fund its 1999 election effort. This has never been proved or disproved.”

He says BAE Systems acknowledges having donated R5 million to the MK Veterans’ Association, of which Modise was the president, while it was making a bid for the Hawk contract.

Together with Swedish arms firm SAAB, BAE also won the contract to supply 28 Gripen fighter planes to the air force.

Feinstein criticised the British government for its part in the alleged irregularities and describes Tony Blair as BAE’s “premier salesperson”. He also refers to the air force’s preference for the cheaper Italian Aermacchi MB-339 aircraft and how the criteria were changed to suit BAE.

“As investigators here [in Britain], and in Germany, continue their endeavours, we can only hope that Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki don’t attempt to prevent the real facts emerging.”

With acknowledgements to Adriaan Basson and The Witness.