Publication: Independent Online Issued: Date: 2009-05-01 Reporter: Angela Quintal

Former Thint chief seeks citizenship

 

Publication 

Independent Online
Date 2009-05-01
Reporter Angela Quintal
Web Link www.iol.co.za



The man who once stood in the dock with Jacob Zuma wants to become a South African.

Pierre Moynot, the chief executive of French arms subsidiary Thint which was accused with Zuma of corruption, retired as the company officially ceased to exist on Thursday.

Thint's activities continue, however, and the company - the local arm of French arms giant Thales International, a major player in South African defence, service and infrastructure contracts - will soon be reincarnated as Thales South Africa Pty Ltd.

Charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering were formally withdrawn against Thint (Pty) Ltd and Thint Holding in the Durban High Court on April 7, the day the NPA dropped its case against Zuma.

Eight days later, the warrant of arrest granted in February 2005 for Thint's former head, Alain Thetard, was cancelled by Judge Kate Pillay in the Durban High Court.

As far as Thint lawyer Ajay Sooklal is concerned, the "mist" hanging over his client's head has cleared and the company can move on.

But Moynot, who has lived in South Africa for the past 17 years and has permanent residence, will not be packing for Paris. He will remain in the country and plans to apply for citizenship.

Moynot acknowledges that he did not seek citizenship during Thint's protracted battle with the NPA, "because in case of a major problem, it could have been easier for me to go back to France".

"As I told Zuma at the time: 'As soon as you are elected, I will take the citizenship'. Now I will," he laughed.

Moynot shares a lot more with Zuma. Like the president in waiting, he too believes the corruption charges were part of a political conspiracy.

"(Zuma) was supposed to have received R250 000 from us. Do you really think that a deputy president could be corrupted for this kind of money? *1

"It did not happen. *1 It was just because the previous president was trying to get rid of him. That's it."

As far as Moynot is concerned, the ending of Thint in favour of a new name has nothing to do with trying to "launder" or rehabilitate a company whose image has been badly damaged.

"We always wanted to do it."

When parent company Thomson-CSF was rebranded in December 2000 as Thales International, its South African subsidiaries, including African Defence Systems (ADS), were also supposed to reflect the name change, says Moynot.

He had resisted, however.

"We were in court remember. We thought if we changed (our name) while in court, it might not be felt well."

Moynot said it was decided to leave the name as it was and to change it when all had been settled.

"We never had any doubt that it would be settled. Honestly. There was nothing real (in the charges)."

Moreover, as there was another company called Thales in South Africa, it was decided to use the name Thint, a contraction of Thales International.

Thint has since bought the company and Thales SA will be up and running soon, said Moynot.

The handful of Thint staff members will move to ADS in Midrand.

Thint/Thales has an 80 percent shareholding in ADS, with the rest owned by General Lambert Moloi's Futuristic Business Solutions. Thint/Thales upped its shareholding in ADS when it paid R20 million for the 20 percent owned by Schabir Shaik's Nkobi Group.

Moynot says the BEE stake in ADS is to be increased soon *3.

African Defence Systems, which won the arms deal sub-contract to supply the combat suite for the navy's corvettes, is competing with Atlas Elektronic for a multi-billion-rand contract to fit the navy's future multipurpose patrol vessels.

Christian Lamoureux, chief executive officer of ADS, is to become chief executive of Thales SA.

Moynot said he would resign as director of all the companies in which he was involved, including ADS.

He said that in the unlikely event that the judicial review sought by the DA of the NPA's decision to drop charges against Zuma led to these being revived, Thint's name change would not mean that the company could not be prosecuted again.

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal and Independent Online.

*
1       In typical charming, gaulling, lying fashion, Moynot misrepresents that facts.

Indeed so much so that it shows a contempt of the court.

The court found that the bribe was R500 000 per year until ADS started paying dividends. As dividends were becoming due a year after the bribe agreement was reached, this was deemed to be two years. So the bribe was for R1 million.

The reason that dividends were becoming due in the 2001 financial year was that ADS's R2,6 billion corvette combat suite contract achieved effective date of contact (EDC) in April 2000 and massive advance payments and early progress payments were due and were paid in the second quarter of 2000 and beyond. Before that ADS was almost bankrupt.

But the limiter of payment of the bribe until ADS started paying dividends has a far more onerous dimension that merely the amount.

Zuma was in fact an occult shareholder of ADS.

When Schabir Shaik conceptualised his criminal and bumiputerian model of enriching the likes of himself, his political top cover and their mutual political party according to the Malaysian model, Zuma was penned in to get shares, actually directly in his own name, albeit via Nkobi Investments. Zuma even attended a meeting  in Durban with Shaik, his attorneys and Moynot where shareholding in ADS was the agenda. However, when the ANC frowned on the Bumiputerian model, Zuma got  his slice by the occult method, either or both through Shaik (who tellingly owned equity in his own holding company via a number of different limited liability companies - Starcorp, Clegton Investments, Clanwest Investments and Floryn Investments, inter alia) or one of these companies themselves. One of Shaik's non-occult hire-a-darkie directors and shareholders was even made to sign, but not date, a share transfer form.

Schabir Shaik even initiated the payment of the R1 million bribe by means of four post-dated R250 000 cheques. With the Scorpions watching the money flow like hawks, these cheques got withdrawn and replaced by payment to Nkobi Finance by means of a bogus Service Provider Agreement with Thomson-CSF Mauritius. The court has proven this.

As is was, only the first R250 000 actually got paid (it actually means that Moynot is admitting the payment of R250 000), but the bribe was not for this amount, it was for R500 000 per annum.

So the "clever" savory gaul lies even about the amount of the bribe.

What a thing it would have been to cross-examine this "candid" gaul as representative for an Accused.


*2       It did happen - it was proved in court, the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Moynot testified in this instance and his evidence was rejected in favour of eye-witness and forensic evidence, i.e. an executive statement written by an executive officer of Thomson-CSF that his company would commit a act of corruption in conjunction with the deputy president of his host country.

That is a fact.

If Moynot and Thales now want to will that fact away, they will have to subject themselves and their gaulling evidence to another court process, either criminal or civil and this court will have to overturn the evidence and the judgment of the previous court.

A snowball in hell has far better prospects.


*3      Let's watch this space - any guesses that it will be someone in the current political elite.