Publication: The Times Issued: Date: 2008-01-19 Reporter: Editorial

Mbeki - The Serial Liar

 

Publication 

The Times
Date

2008-01-19
Reporter Editorial

Web Link

www.thetimes.co.za



President Thabo Mbeki has held the ultimate trust a nation can bestow since he was sworn in as our first citizen on June 16 1999. As head of state and the government, he has been responsible for those aspects of our health, security and economic wellbeing that are beyond our personal control.

He has invoked that mandate regularly in the execution of his responsibilities ­ insisting that Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was up to the job in the face of massive anecdotal and empirical evidence to the contrary; telling us that there were moves afoot, too secret for us to know, that would resolve the Zimbabwe crisis; reassuring us that our police force was in good hands.

"Trust me," Mbeki told religious leaders who raised concerns with him over a year ago about the relationship between National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi and Mafia boss Glenn Agliotti, who had just been arrested in connection with Brett Kebble's murder.

He said he had no evidence suggesting Selebi had done anything wrong, and promised to act if anything came up.

Now it has emerged that National Prosecuting Authority and Scorpions head Vusi Pikoli wrote a "last resort" appeal to Mbeki in May last year, spelling out serious allegations against Selebi and asking for executive support to investigate the country's police chief, who was also president of Interpol. He specifically recorded his concern that Selebi was protecting Agliotti.

We do not know whether Mbeki responded to that letter, but in September, when Pikoli obtained search and arrest warrants against Selebi, Mbeki intervened decisively to suspend Pikoli on grounds massively more tenuous than the evidence already stacked against the policeman . Days later ­ after a meeting with officials from Mbeki's office ­ Pikoli's temporary replacement pulled the arrest warrant and unsuccessfully tried to do the same with the search warrants. But, to his credit, Mokotedi Mpshe continued to do a policeman's work.

Selebi will soon be charged with defeating the ends of justice by protecting crime suspects, corruption and racketeering. The details of the indictment, most of which would have been available to Mbeki in September, range from soliciting petty bribes to a charge that Selebi abused his Interpol access to protect Agliotti.

Mbeki protested publicly that no one had given him cause to doubt Selebi, but we now know that, in addition to the many detailed reports by investigative journalists ­ which should have been enough for him to act ­ the evidence gathered by official investigators has been there for Mbeki to pick up and read, at least since May. We now know that he deliberately ignored this information.

It is impossible to conclude otherwise than that our President lied to the nation *1 when, in announcing Selebi's suspension last week, he said: "I have said this before many times: if there was anybody who brought information to me that showed that the national commissioner of police had done wrong things, I would act on it. And nobody did."

You betrayed our trust, Mr President. Now we ask: dare we trust you any longer?

With acknowledgements to The Times.

*1       Mbeki lied point blank to the nation in this instance.

But he has a seven year track record of lying point blank to the nation in Arms Deal.

On 19 January 2001, yesterday exactly seven years ago, Mbeki told the nation via a special broadcast on SABC TV :
"Fellow South Africans
................
 
In this regard, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Advocates Jan Lubbe S.C. and Frank Kahn, S.C., Director of Prosecutions in the Cape of Good Hope, for the assistance they gave the Minister to correct the weakness we have indicated.
 
In a letter to the Minister of Justice dated 18 January, 2001, they say:
 
'Further to your enquiry we advise as follows that at this stage there is no prima facie evidence in law that any person or persons committed a criminal offence.'
 
Let me repeat their statement:
 
'Further to your enquiry we advise as follows that at this stage there is no prima facie evidence in law that any person or persons committed a criminal offence.'"
The truth was exactly the opposite; the precise words of the two senior counsel in their letter of 18 January 2001 were as follows : So this is point blank lie direct to the nation.

Mbeki's Fishers of Corrupt Men, contains multiple examples of Mbeki's out and out lying to the country "
"The fishers have focused especially on the Thomson (Thales) element *2 of the prime contract entered into by the government with the suppliers of the corvettes, the German Frigate Consortium (GFC) *3. The government has explained this very clearly before, that it entered into a contract with the GFC to supply the required number of corvettes, meeting all the stipulated specifications *4.
 
The government has no contracts with the companies retained by the GFC to supply the various component parts of the corvettes *5. Similarly, it never had occasion or need to determine who the partners of the GFC should or should not be, including Thomson (Thales) *6.

 
Our Country Needs Facts, Not Groundless Allegations
http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/special_items/correspondence/mbeki/mbeki_facts.htm
 
*2      Another lie.
The government did not enter into a prime contract with the German Frigate Consortium (GFC).
The government entered into a prime contract the European South African Corvette Consortium (ESACC).
 
ESACC consisted of Blohm+Voss, Thyssen Reinstahl Techniek, HDW, Thomson-CSF Naval Combat Systems and African Defence Systems (Pty Ltd.
 
It's clear, it's in black and white, it's got all the signatures on it including those of January Masilela and Chippy Shaik.
 
*3      Another lie.
The contract diverged in many respects from the stipulated SA Navy specifications.
 
*4      Another lie.
The Umbrella Agreement for the Corvette is directly between the SA Government and Thomson-CSF Naval Combat Systems and African Defence Systems (Pty Ltd in respect of the supply of Part B (the Thomson-CSF and ADS supplied part of the corvette combat suite) and Part C.(the South African Defence Industry supplied part of the corvette combat suite plus the anti-ship missile).
 
*5      Another lie.
Armscor's Request for Information dated September 1997 and Request for Offer dated March 1998 specifically recorded ADS as being responsible for the combat suite and supplying inter alia the combat management system.
 
The Project Control Board (PCB) sat on 6 June 1999 and formalised its equipment selections (including these ones) and a letter  just a few days later (I think 21 June 1999) to ESACC from the Chief Executive Officer of Armscor, Llew Swan, the SA Government statutorily-stipulated defence materiel acquisition agency formally recorded these selections.
So Mbeki manages to propagate at least four serous lies in just two paragraphs.

Mbeki goes on to say :
The proposition that the government influenced the choice of Thomson by the GFC as one of its sub-contractors is both a blatant falsity concocted by the fishers, and a logical absurdity *6. In its statement of 15 September 2000, the government announced those with whom it had entered into contracts. These are British Aerospace/SAAB, the German Frigate Consortium and Augusta. It had no primary contract with Thomson (Thales), as the supplier of the electronic combat suite of the corvettes, which matter, of the supplier of this suite, remained in the exclusive domain of the GFC *9.
 
*6      Another lie.

Mbeki is on the documented record as having met Thomson-CSF privately, secretly and on multiple occasions in the two year period prior to Thomson-CSF being awarded the contract for the Thomson-CSF Tavitac NT combat management system (CMS) and the combat suite sensors.

If is clear, it is on paper it cannot reasonably be refuted.

Indeed when questioned in Parliament about his secret meetings with Thomson-CSF in Paris, he claimed he cannot recall.

Yet apart from Thomson-CSF's encrypted faxes referring to these meetings, there are letters directly to Mbeki himself and to his ambassador thanking them for the meeting.

It is extraordinary.

What a wonderful witness Mbeki will make for adversarial cross-examination.


*7      Another lie.

The contract for the combat suite  and the Thomson-CSF Tavitac NT combat management system (CMS) is directly between the South African Government and Thomson-CSF and ADS.

But next ceases to amaze :
The gentleman concerned makes the false allegation that during the life of the Government of National Unity, formed in 1994, a contract for four corvettes to be built by Bazan of Spain "was cancelled after being awarded" *8. This is not true. The preceding apartheid Cabinet had not approved this contract. The GNU Cabinet decided not to enter into this contract.
Bazan entered the later competition to supply the four corvettes, and lost to the GFC. This issue is of relevance and interest only because of the controversy that some have brought into the current defence procurement. It is an interesting coincidence
that this controversy has focused so intensely on the corvettes.
 
*8      Another lie.

What I said was :
"This was not long after a R2,4bn tender (1995 : the rand to the US dollar was R3,50) for four patrol corvettes (read light frigates) was cancelled after being awarded, to all intents and purposes to Bazan of Spain."
http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles03/query_spending.html

Mbeki simply leaves out the rider to suit his deceitful purposes.

Meanwhile RAdm(JG) Kek Vester had testified under oath during the Public Phase of Arms Deal Investigation during June 2001 as follows :
"I just want to point out in 1994 and 1995 there were very particular approvals given for the Corvette, the navy Corvette, and there is certain documentation which I do not want to now name, but we were on our way to ask for political authority in 1995 particularly.  At that time the Corvette had money approved on the budget."
I can state categorically that after a three year process Bazan had won the tender over the Yarrows Shipyard of Glasgow. The approvals had been given - only final cabinet authority was required.

SA Navy and Armscor personnel were by then already working at the Bazan shipyard on the western seaboard of Spain. I personally know some of them.

I can also state categorically that Bazan actually won the military evaluation process of the 1997 to 1998 Arms Deal. I know - I was told face to face by the SA Navy's project director.

This too was overturned by Mbeki and his cronies in Cabinet to give it to his buddies in Germany.


In short Mbeki is an out and out liar whenever it suits him.

A first world country or even a developing country cannot have liar for a president.

He must go.

But the problem is, with whom can he be replaced right now?