Publication: The Citizen Issued: Date: 2007-11-20 Reporter: Paul Kirk

Mbeki Arms Deal Row Hots Up

 

Publication 

The Citizen
Date

2007-11-20
Reporter Paul Kirk

Web Link

www.citizen.co.za

 

Speculation over President Thabo Mbeki's alleged involvement in the controversial arms deal is hotting up as more details surface.

As a postscript to Mbeki's weekly newsletter, a vicious attack on the media, "Lies, damned lies", was added to the ANC Today website.

The column opens with: "This column has exposed deliberate lies that have been told by some in the domestic and international media, who have the specific intention to discredit our movement, the ANC, and our government."

The writer, presumably Mbeki, then goes on to attack the "shameless fabrications" that he maintains the Press has created.

Specifically the piece attacks the Guardian writer Chris McGreal, and seeks to defend SA's purchase of the Hawk jet trainer - a product of British Aerospace (BAe).

The attack on the media comes in the wake of Andrew Feinstein's book, After the Party, in which Feinstein reveals how Mbeki, his Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad and Tony Yengeni all tried to thwart an investigation into the arms deal.

Feinstein told The Citizen he was co-operating with the British Serious Fraud Office, which is probing claims that BAe paid millions in bribes to secure the South African contract.

And The Citizen has also obtained dramatic evidence of how Mbeki personally sat in on irregular meetings that swung multibillion-rand deals the way of BAe.

These documents, obtained from many different sources, suggest that Mbeki played a crucial role in buying an unsuitable jet because the manufacturer had allegedly paid millions in bribes.

Defending the decision to buy the BAe Hawk trainer, the letter says: "Once the decision was taken to acquire the Gripen fighter aircraft ... it was clear that it would be incorrect to acquire the Aeromacchi trainer. This was for the simple reason that it would not be possible to graduate from the Aeromacchi trainer to fly the Gripen."

However, The Citizen has established this argument, long used by defenders of the arms deal, is a lie.

The minutes of the Armament Acquisition Steering Board (AASB) meeting of 16 July, 1998 under the chairmanship of the Secretary of Defence, General Pierre Steyn, resolved: "The SAAF confirms the first three contenders, the MB 339 FD, the L159 and the Hawk all satisfy the SAAF pilot training requirement for conversion from the Astra to the Alfa."

These minutes continue: "The chairman rules that the AASB recommendation is the MB 339 FD as evaluated, and noted that this result is the SAAF preference within the envisaged 'SAAF fighter training system' required by the SAAF."

There is no record of any dissent at the meeting, and the minutes show the SAAF wanted the much cheaper Italian-made MB339 trainer, not the more expensive Hawk.

Steyn, who was then Secretary for Defence, was also the former commander of the SAAF and a pilot with decades of experience.

The ANC Today piece also claims that: "Had we bought the Aeromacchi trainer, we would still have to buy the Hawk and use the Italian trainer to prepare pilots to fly the Hawk, despite the fact that our air force already has trainers to prepare pilots to fly this aircraft."

The author of the ANC piece no doubt hoped the "secret" classification of the documents showing the ANC's claims to be lies would keep them out of public sight - and allow the ANC line to escape challenge.

The ANC Today newsletter also attacks claims in the media that Steyn - the man who signed off on the minutes showing the Air Force wanted the cheaper jets - resigned in protest over the arms deal.

The ANC document claims this to be a "blatant lie", but official records show it probably is not.

On August 14, 2001, Steyn was interviewed under oath by a team consisting of advocate S Mzinyathi, and Auditor-General personnel H Mostert and G Swats.

This interview was conducted with a view to establishing evidence of arms deal corruption.

In the transcript of the interview, Steyn is quoted as saying: "The whole process was turned arse about face and patently I was irritated no end at going through a facade of legitimising what we were doing."

Steyn then goes on to say that the entire tender process was a farce: "The decision-makers and those who supported the decision-makers tried various avenues to get to presumably their predetermined choice. Their choice for the Hawk was patently clear right from the start."

With acknowledgement to Paul Kirk and The Citizen.


*1       Convening the meeting was probably not irregular in itself, but it was no formal meeting, only a briefing. This "meeting" had no formal authority to take any decisions.

But the "meeting" became irregular once "decisions" were made, these "decisions" were made after certain crucial attendees left, and two sets of minutes appeared.

What is quite peculiar, is that the "meeting" had no designated secretary. Chippy Shaik gave the presentation yet at the same time produced a set of minutes.

This don't conform to MODAC (Ministry of Defence Acquisition).


The Auditor-General's investigators found out all of this and reported on it in their draft reports with a key finding that the Hawk acquisition was irregular.

Yet that greatest of stooges, Shauket Fakie CA(SA), changed these findings in the final report and concluded that the government effectively could do anything it liked.