Johannesburg - ANC heavyweight and Speaker of the National Assembly Max Sisulu held shares in a multimillion-rand defence and aerospace company which is set to make a killing out of the controversial R47-billion deal to purchase eight Airbus A400M transport planes.

Sisulu, along with Jackie Mufamadi, “the wife of the former local government minister”, and Herman Mashaba, a tycoon entrepeneur who developed the “Black Like Me” range of cosmetics is listed as a director of Phatsima Aviation.

Among the shareholders are Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa and Titus Mafolo (Thabo Mbeki’s former presidential adviser).

Phatsima, whose directors and shareholders have no experience in aerospace or defence industries, were sold a 20% share in established aviation company Aerosud by the Industrial Development Corporation in November 2005.

The Industrial Development Corporation in turn acquired the shares in 2003 when they injected capital into Aerosud.

Aerosud were involved in manufacturing the Rooivalk attack helicopter and hold deals worth hundreds of millions from various foreign defence companies.

Airbus Military spokesman Linden Birns confirmed that Aerosud, along with Denel-SAAB Aerostructures are full industrial partners in the A400M project. South Africa signed the deal to purchase the A400M planes on April 28, 2005 months before Phatsima bought their shares in local partner Aerosud”.

At the time that Phatsima bought their shares, the IDC lauded Mashaba saying he would help black people break into the aviation industry *1.

As part of the deal Phatsima was to establish a fund to train black engineers.

Mashaba in turn said he had “worked hard” to convince the IDC to sell him their shares.

However, yesterday Mashaba confirmed that Phatsima had given up its shares in Aerosud, selling them to an undisclosed party.

Mashaba declined to tell The Citizen what he sold the shares for, he also declined to mention what his company originally paid for the shares.

He confirmed that Sisulu no longer held any shares in the company as these too had been sold.

The Citizen queried Sisulu’s involvement in Phatsima after he declared he held no shares in the company and stated that Phatsima was a dormant company in the parliamentary register of members’ interests.

A search of company records did not seem to support this claim.

Mashaba told The Citizen that Phatsima had practically ceased to exist as a company at around the time Sisulu became Speaker of Parliament.

It is Sisulu who will have to make a ruling into whether or not an opposition motion for a parliamentary inquiry into the Airbus deal is accepted or not.

With acknowledgements to Paul Kirk and The Citizen.