Parliament is set to take one more stab at the
ongoing allegations of corruption in the government's
multibillion-rand arms deal by bringing in the police's
new priority crime unit, the Hawks.
Nearly 10 years since the National Prosecuting Authority
(NPA) started probing the allegations, investigations
are still dragging on and MPs heard on Friday that "all
files" had been handed over to the police's Directorate
for Priority Crime Investigations.
Themba Godi, chairman of the standing committee on
public accounts (Scopa), says the committee is likely to
call the Hawks before July.
"We want to start wrapping up our report," he said, of
the committee's 2008 decision to make government
departments account for their work to put the graft
allegations to rest."
In an answer to a question from the DA last year,
President Jacob Zuma said Scopa's report would help
inform him on whether to set up a judicial inquiry into
the deal.
Unlike his predecessors in the Presidency, Zuma did not
reject out of hand a clamour of appeals from civil
society for a commission by luminaries such as Nobel
laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk.
Scopa's decision to call the Hawks follows Friday's
disclosure by National Director of Public Prosecutions
Menzi Simelane that the NPA is no longer responsible for
the investigations, after handing the matter to Hawks
commissioner Anwar Dramat.
Scopa wanted to grill Simelane on the NPA's lack of
progress with further investigations that were ordered
by former president Thabo Mbeki's 2001 enquiry - the
Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
DA member of Scopa Mark Steele said the Hawks should be
called "urgently".
"Clearly the NPA has no appetite for this investigation,
and the issue now becomes whether the Hawks have the
capacity and the will to pursue the investigation with
the necessary energy and commitment", Steele said.
"This transfer of responsibility is part of a pattern of
delaying tactics by the ANC.
"Ultimately, we continue to believe that only an
independent judicial inquiry will fully expose the
extent of the arms deal corruption."
Asked whether the hand-over to the Hawks meant that none
of the cases have progressed to a stage where
prosecution was imminent, Simelane told Independent
Newspapers: "It is still at investigations stage."
Scopa called the NPA and a range of other departments to
public hearings last year to account for the steps they
have taken to comply with recommendations of the JIT
report.
An internal Scopa report on the hearings fingered the
NPA as the only entity "that did not respond
satisfactorily to the committee's request for
information".
This article was originally published on page 6
of
The Cape Argus on May 16, 2010
With acknowledgements to Weekend
Argus. The Teutonic
Memo
[English Translation]
TRT/F-2Düsseldorf,
03.08.98
C. Hoenings/bö
Tel.: 37150
Fax: 35572
MEMO
South Africa
The last trip (27-30.07.1998) was suggested by C. Shaikh,
Director Defence Secretariat. During one of our meetings
he asked once again for explicit confirmation that the
verbal agreement made with him for payment to be made in
case of success, to him and a group represented by him,
in the amount of 3 million US$ [gilt]. I confirmed this
to him and offered to record this agreement in writing
at any time and proposed to put the latter in a safe
that can only be accessed jointly. C.Shaikh will report
back on this shortly.
Mr Shaikh has emphasised that the B+V/TRT offer was
pulled into first place in spite of the Spanish offer
being 20% cheaper. The Spanish offset (only the DTI
share without "social components") was according to him
also valued higher than ours. In this respect it had,
according to him, been no simple exercise to get us into
1st place.
Mr Müller/B+V was informed by me at that time about the
arrangement made and also about the conversation I had
just had with C.Shaikh, whereby he was asked to reserve
the aforesaid amount for the price negotiations to
follow, to which he was agreeable.
C. Hoenings
[Signature on copy received]
'Nuf said?