Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2008-04-13 Reporter: Sandra Botha

Arms Deal TRC Will Only Lead to Perpetrators Escaping Legal Culpability

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent
Date

2008-04-13

Reporter

 Sandra Botha

Web Link

www.sundayindependent.co.za



Lately, the proposal that a truth and reconciliation commission-type process be set up to get to the bottom of arms deal corruption has been gaining ground.

The nub of the argument is that a political solution which would grant amnesty to offenders in exchange for full disclosure - exactly as took place as a result of the TRC hearings - is needed, because the alleged arms deal corruption is substantially a political problem.

I believe that this line of reasoning is flawed.

Allegations concerning arms deal corruption may have first come to light in parliament, but it was not until the release of a report from the auditor-general on arms deal irregularities in September 2000 that the allegations gained momentum.

The report itself was the result of the auditor-general's office - designed to protect ordinary South Africans from the unscrupulous and the powerful - doing its work, and was therefore no more than the outcome of a democratic process as mandated by the constitution. The issue only really became politicised when the ANC began intervening politically to obstruct this process, to protect those suspected of wrongdoing within its ranks, as well as the party as a whole.

These interventions are well documented, starting with Tony Yengeni's first steps to rein in the standing committee on public accounts in October 2000 through to the now infamous intervention by the ANC's "governance committee" a month later.

The argument can also not be made that the problem is political on the basis of the alleged involvement of ANC politicians.

As Bill Clinton, the former United State president, stated during a recent appearance on a US talk show, being an elected representative is a job like any other - you are obliged to do it like any other employee in any other organisation.

Therefore everybody who is proven to have failed in the duties that they were obliged to carry out by law and in service of the people should be prosecuted.

Let us be quite clear: arms deal fraud equates to stealing from the taxpayer. This is nothing less than a criminal transgression that must be exposed and punished as such. Exchanging amnesty for the truth will only result in the perpetrators of arms deal fraud escaping culpability under the law.

Aside from this inescapable truth, there are several other pressing reasons for refusing amnesty. In the first place, several participants in the arms deal have already been sentenced and convicted of corruption (such as Shabir Shaik and Tony Yengeni) or are currently on trial (such as Jacob Zuma). To change the terms of reparation at this stage would have grave legal consequences.

Secondly, formal probes are currently being conducted in Britain, Sweden and Germany into the corrupt activities of arms dealers implicated in the South African scandal. It would make sense for us to carry out a parallel inquiry in co-operation with these investigations. More importantly, using the TRC as a template for an investigation into the arms deal is erroneous. The TRC exchanged amnesty for truth in the interests of national reconciliation as much as to uncover the truth about apartheid-era atrocities. No such overarching nation-building project is at stake in the arms deal.

In effect, a TRC-type process would only foster continuing collusion between members of the unholy triangle - business *1, the ANC and the state - which resulted in arms deal bribery in the first place. The Democratic Alliance maintains that nothing less than a judicial commission of enquiry, with full powers of subpoena, headed by a judge of impeccable reputation, is required as a matter of urgency to probe the arms deal.

After its findings have been made public and accepted by government, prosecutions must follow against alleged wrongdoers in the normal fashion.

Sandra Botha is the parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance.

With acknowledgements to Sandra Botha and Sunday Independent.


*1       Business - yes - but foreign business.

The local defence industry was too poor to make a major contribution to the ANC's R1,5 billion current stash.

And apart from the ANC's R1,5 billion it's head honchos have together amassed a further couple of billion among them.

Some Among Us is rumoured to have a stash of R4,5 billion.

Even Mad Bad Bob has a stash of a couple of hundred million US dollars *2.


*2      Equivalent to :

US$1 000 000 000 = Z$50 000 000 000 000 000


US$1 billion = Z$50 thousand trillion