Sunday Live: Why we published details of the arms deal [Sunday Times, 2008-08-02]

Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2008-08-02
Reporter	Various
Web Link	multimedia.thetimes.co.za

Every week the editor of the Sunday Times Mondli Makhanya discusses the week’s lead story. In this episode of Sunday Live he explains why we published startling new details of the controversial arms deal.

IT’S GOOD TO KNOW THAT MBEKI WAS SOMEHOW INVOLVED IN THE ARMS SHADY DEAL, HOWEVER THIS KINDS OF INFORMATION NEEDS TO BE POLITICALY DELT WITH.

WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THE WHOLE STORY IS THAT, THERE IS A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO MAYBE INVOLVED IN THE DEALINGS.HOWEVER SHABIR SHAIK AND JG ZUMA ARE MADE TO LOOK AS IF ITS ONLY THEM WHO WERE DEALING WITH THE WHOLE SA’S ARMS DEAL, WHICH I PERSONALY FIND IT WRONG.

THE SCORPIONS IS TOO SELECTIVE AND MALICIOUS TO OTHERS AND MUM ABOUT OTHERS, WHY IS THAT? THIS WHOLE ARMS DEAL THING NEEDS THE ANC TO SOLVE IT THROUGH AMNESTY FOR THOSE WHO MAY HAVE DONE SOMEHOW WRONG IN THE DEALINGS.

WHY IS SHABIR SHAIK MADE A SECRIFIES LAMP, AND WHY IS JG ZUMA PERSECUTED, WHEN MBEKI HIMSELF WAS INVOLVED WHILE HE PRETEND AS IF IS SKOEN PAPER.

I listened to the interview with the editor and he did not mention the source of his news. I wish he had because reports, for me, are legitimate if there is a source that one can name. He mentioned a document that the story is based on.

I think that if evidence exists, it is our duty to take it to the courts so that we do not have trial by media but by the courts. Otherwise it all ends up as allegations, denial, which results in suspicion about what the motive of some news is.

very startling allegation indeed! i do hope that the right prosecuting channels are followed and that all those involved are brought to book. however i do hope that should a thorough investigation find these allegations to be false and no no wrong-doing is found amongst mbeki and other top ranking officials, our media agencies will have the decency to lay it to rest and we can all move on from this sordid affair that has been dragging on since 1999(correct me of date if im wrong).again i do hope these documents that have surfaced will not be held by our gullible media as the final truth as it so often happens

Mondli you are asked if this will have negative international repercussions and your response is “Yes”. Yet you couldn’t resist the temptation of this scoop. Are you proudly South African? In these highly divisive times of political unrest in SA, I think the responsible thing for the Sunday Times to have done is taken all the information at their disposal to the police and parliament instead of a sensationalist approach of the now popular trend you have of half-truths riddled with flawed views of anonymous sources and documents that you do not scan and publish so that we the public whose views you aim to shape can decide for ourselves the credibility and intergrity of your allegations…

Having said all this however, I support your right to free speech and journalism not curbed by political influence. If only I could just believe though that you too are not being influenced by certain quarters to shift public sentiments in a desired direction…

Well this is very controversial but I am not shocked. I am not shocked because it’s something I expected to come out. I knew from day one that Mbeki was not clean in the arms. Why would he then go after Zuma only why even himself is involved? Did he play his cards wrong by going for Zuma? I think yes because the Zuma case has in a way exposed that there was corruption in the arms deal and given the fact that more people were involved, it was obvious that Zuma was not alone.

For the spokesperson to say if anyone has evidence they should apporach the law enforcement agencies is great mockery. They have controll over the law enforcement agancies and they will do anything to discard any incriminating evidence. Everytime a high profile person close to the president is suspected of wrong doing, the president says he wants evidence and when it is brought to his attention, he ignroes the evidence. So what evidence does he wants?

This leads me to the next question that should get all our fellow citizens worried: How independent are our Law enforcement agencies? And even our Judiciary! In south africa we have now arrived at a situation where we are all asking ourselves how did we get here? From a high ranked country in the world to a laughing stock of the the world that i snow perceived as being corrupt?

Mbeki should not even hesitate to step down. He should resign with immediate effect and if he doesn’t have the pen to to resign with, i can use my last R1-00 to buy him a cheap one. Mbeki is a very arrogant someone and won’t give in so easily. There’s only one way to get him out and that’s through next year’s election. We should have our elections on new years day because I cant wait another day when we enter 2009 to see his back. And Jacob Zuma is waiting for him in the dock so the sooner the better.

Like Mbeki, Let me quote his extract of the State of the Nations address when he quoted Charles Dickson’s Novel, a tale of two cities:”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it ws the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.”

It is very much true that it is the winter of despair. We are in a winter of despair and next month will be springs and I hope it becomes teh spring of hope as he will step down. But unlike all of us, he is going in his own direction and yes he had everything before himself: teh NPA, Police, Scorpion, The media, The Judges.

I prefer to think there are no political motives behind such reports. Coz if there are, then we have a problem. We need to ask ourselves one question: Should Zuma’s case be postponed to sometime next year, are we prepared to vote for such a candidate? If so, will our justice system be stable enough to fight against a state President. I think both Mbheki and Zuma are not clean and none of them deserve a privilege to lead the state.