New evidence: Former president Thabo Mbeki

He has denied ever meeting Thint

Thabo Mbeki met Jacob Zuma’s alleged benefactors Thomson- CSF multiple times between 1997 and 1999, according to documents seized by the Scorpions from the company.

The documents were seized for the trial of Schabir Shaik and could also be used in any trial against Zuma.

The internal company documents say Mbeki assured its executives long before contracts were granted that Thomson- CSF would be cut into the multibillion-rand transaction.

Sowetan has seen unencrypted faxes, pages from diaries, itineraries for the meetings and other documents seized from the arms company in which its officials state that the meetings were held to discuss its products for the navy.

Zuma’s legal advisers recently received copies of the documents. His lawyers will be meeting the NPA today to make oral representations about his corruption case.

The ANC president has recently been making veiled threats about unmasking colleagues who played a far more significant role than he in the arms deal.

And in court papers he has referred to “the type of representation which... will likely be submitted” to the NPA to include a letter he signed that he claims Mbeki wrote to then Scopa chairman Gavin Woods saying their was no need for the Heath unit to investigate the arms deal.

Scopa, parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, had wanted former judge Willem Heath’s Special Investigating Unit to investigate the arms deal because it had special capabilities and powers the police lacked. But Mbeki refused permission for the unit to be involved.

Mbeki, then deputy president and chairman of the ministerial committee overseeing the arms deal, has frequently denied meeting Thomson-CSF, now called Thales International or Thint.

Any meetings with the Thomson-CSF officials between 1997 and 1999 would have been highly irregular while the government’s team was negotiating with potential suppliers.

The documents say Mbeki met Alain Thetard, Thomson’s representative in South Africa, in Pretoria on the afternoon of June 27 1998 with his company’s vice president Jean-Paul Perrier, who was on a three-day visit to South Africa.

The delegation also met Alec Erwin, then minister of trade and industry.

A paper entitled “Meeting with Mr T Mbeki”, dated November 27 1998, puts the company’s case why it feels it should be awarded the contract.

Under summary, it says: “THCSF was able, during the apartheid era, to show its support for the ANC cause in a symbolic manner.”

Mbeki was recalled as president days after members of an ANC internal committee that investigated the arms deal last year are believed to have had access to the documents.

The committee included former head of the military Siphiwe Nyanda, housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu and party treasurer Mathews Phosa.

Phosa this week denied that Mbeki was confronted with their report shortly before he was recalled as president.