Publication	Cape Argus
Date	2011-11-21
Reporter	Sapa
Web Link	www.iol.co.za

President Jacob Zuma's spokesperson Mac Maharaj

The SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) wants national director of Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane to release the testimony given by presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj to a secret inquiry by the Scorpions regarding the government’s multibillion-rand arms deal.

Sanef said it was concerned by Maharaj’s attempts to censor reports about his appearance before the inquiry conducted by the Scorpions before it was disbanded, by bringing criminal charges against Mail & Guardian journalists Sam Sole and Stefaans Brummer.

On Friday that newspaper disclosed that it had documents containing details of the secret Scorpions inquiry but that it was prevented from publishing them because their secrecy is protected under the National Prosecuting Authority Act.

Simelane’s permission is required before they can be published.

The documents detail the financial and other conduct of Maharaj relating to South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms procurement deals.

At the weekend, Maharaj announced that he had laid criminal charges against the Mail & Guardian and two of its reporters for their “illegal” possession of the documentation.

Editor Nic Dawes said possession of the documents was not a crime, but disclosure of their content without permission would be.

The paper said Maharaj had refused to answer questions it put to him about the answers he gave the Scorpions during the inquiry.

Maharaj, in turn, questioned the newspaper about how it had obtained the record of the inquiry.

Sanef said it was

“concerned that the testimony by Maharaj who, as the spokesman for President Jacob Zuma, is at the heart of government, should be kept secret and joins the Mail & Guardian in requesting Menzi Simelane to release the record immediately. Information about Maharaj’s testimony and conduct, given his high profile role in government and his former role as minister of transport, is of major public interest”.

The Right2Know campaign has condemned the legal action taken by Maharaj against the Mail & Guardian.

“Effectively, this is even worse than the Secrecy Bill, which at least requires officials to formally classify a document before it becomes a state secret, and provides some degree of whistleblower protection, as paper-thin as it may be.”

Maharaj has shrugged off allegations of unlawful conduct that he and his wife, Zarina Maharaj, received millions of rands from French arms company Thales.

Yesterday, Maharaj said the Sunday Times had not found the space to publish in full his three-sentence e-mailed response to the paper. Instead, it had selected parts of his response for publication and this had limited the public’s awareness of what he had said.

“The fact that the Scorpions did not bring any charges against either of us should make you alive to the fact that the reported insinuations and allegations of unlawful conduct by us implied in your questions may, once again, result in and subject us to character assassination and trial by media consciously making use of selective information only,” Maharaj said in his reply to the Sunday Times.

“These issues belong to matters that were investigated by the Scorpions.”

DA spokesman on transport Stuart Farrow said he would ask the public protector to investigate the allegations.

According to the Sunday Times report, secret payments totalling 1.2 million French francs were paid into Zarina Maharaj’s offshore bank accounts just before Thales was awarded a R265m tender by the Department of Transport, which Mac Maharaj headed at the time.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Cape Argus.

Stinkensteins.