Letter

SA is committed to the African Union (AU) and Nepad conventions against corruption. These both oblige our government to ban any deals with companies convicted of, or incriminated in, corruption. The huge arms deal controversies implicate two companies, BAE and Thint, both of which had several such prior allegations reported against them in the European media.

So it is of great concern to South Africans to read that Eskom has short-listed Areva for contracts with a reported value of between R120bn and R700bn, up to 10 times the value of the arms deal, Eskom ponders nuclear plant bids (Business Day, February 4), Mail & Guardian, March 6.

No one has refuted, or sued for defamation, City Press for its report of January 13, page 5: “The director of a weekly publication was arrested on Friday in Bangui in the Central African Republic because of an article on government officials who allegedly received money from the French company Areva.

“The journalist, Faustin Bambou … was arrested following a December 21 article published in the Hills of Oubangui , which alleged that two government officials had received large sums of money from nuclear energy company Areva."

Another source claims the bribes were € 10m (more than R100m). No one less than France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy emphasised in SA: “African civil society and public opinion wants us to be directly involved by, for example, denouncing corruption." (Cape Times, February 29).

Can our journalists and civil society please do their duty and follow up this allegation? And find out what has subsequently happened to their fellow journalist in Bangui?

Equally unacceptable, Eskom has simultaneously short-listed Laymeyer to design new power stations. In 2003, Laymeyer was convicted in Lesotho of paying bribes of R2,5m to the CE of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority. Consequently, in 2006, the World Bank banned Laymeyer from any new contracts for seven years (Business Report, February 18).

Unless these reports are convincingly refuted, every South African needs to demand that Eskom remove forthwith from its tender short lists those two companies, and ban deals with them.

If it does not, what is the value of SA’s signature on the AU and Nepad conventions against corruption? What will be the value of those two conventions?

Keith Gottschalk
Claremont

With acknowledgements to Tony Leon, Gareth van Onselen and Business Day.