Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2007-03-18 Reporter: Jeremy Gordin

Shaiks Slam Claims that Chippy Has Left for Good

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent

Date

2007-03-18

Reporter

 Jeremy Gordin

Web Link

www.sundayindependent.co.za

 

The family of Chippy Shaik has denied that he has skipped the country. They were reacting to questions from the media following a statement by Eddie Trent, the Democratric Alliance's spokesperson on South Africa's arms procurement deal.

Trent said this week "several sources have indicated to the DA that there are strong rumours that Chippy Shaik's whereabouts are unknown. If these rumours are true and he has fled the country, it raises more questions about his involvement in the arms deal and makes it all the more necessary that the authorities investigate this matter with the greatest urgency."

Yunis Shaik said Chippy was the chief executive of a mining business that operated in Mozambique and Australia, in which a number of the Shaik brothers held shares. Chippy Shaik consequently spent a great deal of time travelling between those two countries and South Africa.

"His wife is in Durban, his kids are at school, his bank accounts are still here. Chippy left on a business trip on Monday and he'll be back in due course. But why do I have to explain this sort of thing? It's not anyone's business," said Yunis Shaik.

Mo Shaik, another of Chippy's brothers, said: "This is classic Scorpions' games-playing *1. You put out misinformation, elicit a statement from some politician - then you go and harass someone, citing public interest.

"It's nonsense. If the newspapers want to write rubbish about Chippy fleeing the country, go for it."

Trent's statement followed the decision by Lawrence Mushwana, the public protector, Terence Nombembe, the auditor-general, and Vusi Pikoli, the national director of public prosecutions, that they would not jointly investigate the "new areas of concern" around the arms deal. They said they would instead continue to investigate separately and would separately assist law enforcement agencies in Sweden, Germany and Britain in their investigations into allegations that "commissions" were paid to South Africans to secure slices of the arms deal.

Among the new allegations is that Chippy Shaik solicited a $3 million (about R21 million) bribe from ThyssenKrupp, one of the arms deal bidders. No proof has been produced, but Germany's Der Spiegel magazine claims that a German provincial prosecutor has seen incriminating documents.

"Chippy's travelling right now," said Mo Shaik. "He doesn't know about this furore and we're not going to bother him with this bullshit. We're not going to deal with this matter in the way we did with Schabir's - in the media circus.

"If somebody wants to charge Chippy with something, has something to charge Chippy with, let him come and do it *3. That's it. That's all we have to say."

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Gordin and Sunday Independent.


*1       Nonsense, the information originated from Durban by the sea, not the Victoria and Griffiths Mxenge Building.


*2      The German police and provincial prosecutor in Dusseldorf are in possession of a range of incriminating documents.

They should soon see the light of day, annexed to a Letter of Request for Mutual Assistance.

Then 15 to 25 years in The Pen beckons.


*3      Let them come and do it. It's their job.