Publication	City Press
Date	2011-12-18
Reporter	Thabo Mbeki
Web Link	www.citypress.co.za

During the fortnight since City Press published the interview with Advocate Willem Heath, I have been inundated with media requests to comment on the substance of the allegations made by Heath.

Some of the questions posed have suggested that it was indeed possible that during the time I served as President of South Africa, I could have committed the criminal and unconstitutional offences as alleged by Heath.

My Office has issued a statement which has correctly stated my unequivocal assertion that all the allegations made by Heath are false, malicious and defamatory.

I am ready to defend this assertion in any forum.
 
Nevertheless I respect the fact that Heath made the allegations he did, presumably based on information in his possession and his constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech.

This is because it is vitally important that our young democracy must accept the principle and practice of the rule of law, which prescribes that even Heads of State and Government are not above the law.

Obviously, in the context of both natural justice and statutory law, all opportunity should be provided to Heath freely and without fear of retribution to produce the facts which would substantiate his allegations.

Among other things, this is necessary because of the obligation to respect the guaranteed right to freedom of speech.

At the same time it is absolutely necessary that we understand that in no way does this right permit for its abuse to propagate falsehoods, and wilfully make defamatory and libellous statements. Inherent to the right are various obligations.

All of us must therefore look beyond the seemingly simple matter of the veracity or otherwise of the Heath allegations.

In this regard I am certain that in time this particular issue will be resolved, relating to a definitive determination of the truth.

Our fundamental national challenge is that we must integrate in everything we do – and therefore in our ‘national DNA’ - the understanding and practice that to defeat the apartheid crime against humanity*1, we agreed that we would establish a constitutional democracy anchored on an inalienable Bill of Rights.

This means that we agreed to establish a law-governed society, in which, among other things, the rights of the individual would be protected and all statutory law would respect the perimeters prescribed in the letter and spirit of our Constitution, including its Bill of Rights.

The statement issued by my Office on December 8 responding to the Heath allegations, made the following important observation:

“In the past, former President Mbeki has drawn attention to the use of fabrications to advance particular political agendas and to divert attention from the pressing challenges of the day. If our broad leadership at all levels of society does not address this tendency, it may become an indelible part of our political culture and make it impossible for our country to address the real challenges we face.”

For far too long, since the establishment of our democracy in 1994, we have repeatedly seen determined efforts to ensure that the national discourse is dominated by issues which have absolutely nothing to do with our real and pressing national matters.

An example of this, in the context of this article, is the diversionary heat which has been generated by Heath’s allegations.

The principal observation I am making is that we have allowed for some in our country to use various peripheral issues to divert us from focusing on the most important challenges we face as a country and a people.

Again I must insist that it is absolutely correct that all necessary action is taken to address all allegations, as happened and will happen with regard to the so-called ‘arms deal’.

In exactly the same way it is absolutely correct that all necessary action is taken to investigate in a transparent manner the allegations made by Heath which centrally question my own and the honesty and integrity of our former democratic governments.

I must confess that the extremely defamatory allegations made so unequivocally by Heath, which a respected South African periodical, City Press, chose to publish, forced me to engage in some introspection.

I fully accept that others, rather than me, may very well be better placed critically to judge the quality of my performance as our country’s Head of State and Government.

However, over the years, very many people inside and outside our country have pressed me to write and publish my Memoires, convinced that these would help especially our people further to deepen their understanding of the processes relating to the transformation of apartheid South Africa into a non-racial democracy.

Among other things, this correctly assumes that I have various facts at my disposal which have not as yet seen the light of day, but which are essential pieces of the jigsaw puzzle which explains the evolution *2 of South Africa over a number of decades, to this day.

As I engaged in the process of introspection, arising from the Heath allegations, I was mindful of the reality that indeed I am familiar with a unique body of facts and a broad reality to which I had access solely because, over many years, I had the rare privilege to serve in the highest echelons of both the ANC and our Government.

It is therefore obvious that I would be familiar with all the matters to which Heath referred relating to my conduct as Head of State and Government.

As I have said, I do hope that in time the opportunity will arise such that the facts about all these issues are disclosed to our people as a whole.

Again as I have said, Court proceedings may provide such an opportunity, as hopefully will the hearings of the projected Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Defence Procurement Package, the so-called arms deal.

In three weeks’ time, the ANC will celebrate its Centenary.

I feel especially honoured and privileged that for many decades I served in its leading echelons in various capacities, from the ANC branches up to its National Executive Committee.

As I engaged in the introspection to which I have referred, occasioned by the Heath allegations, I asked myself the question – when, during these decades, since I became a member of the Youth League in 1956, when Heath was an 11-year-old in apartheid South Africa, did I do anything which amounted to a betrayal of the objectives and the ethical paradigm that have defined the very being of the ANC?

I would like to believe that throughout these decades I have acted as a true cadre of the ANC, informed by a number of fundamental and inalienable prescriptions.

One of these is that one joins the ANC with the sole purpose to serve the people of South Africa, with no expectation of personal gain or personal acclaim and status.

Another is that the ANC, and therefore its members, should conduct themselves in a manner which, based on the actions of the organisation, rather than its word, convinces our people that they can depend on the ANC truly to represent their interests at all times and under all circumstances.

Yet another is that in all its activities the ANC would respect various ethical prescriptions encapsulated in the pedagogy of the erstwhile oppressed of our country, described as ‘ubuntu’, which was a vitally important part of our upbringing which, hopefully, we carried with us into our adult years.

Among other things, these prescriptions require the celebration of honesty and an aversion to lies; hostility to the abuse of power for personal benefit; respect for all human beings and the inalienable right of every member of society freely to help determine the future of their society; and the understanding that because ‘I am because you are’, all human action must be informed by the realisation that everything should be done to achieve the welfare of all.

In essence, and by implication, Heath has made bold to assert that as our country’s Head of State and Government I betrayed all these principles.

These include the very oath of office to which thrice I solemnly swore allegiance at the Union Buildings, in the presence of representatives of our people and the peoples of the world, committing myself to respect our Constitution as well as advance everything which would benefit the people of South Africa.

During the 17 years of our democracy from 1994 to date, the ANC presented to our population General and Local Government Election Manifestoes which committed us to do everything in our power to address our country’s fundamental challenges, consistent with the vision spelt out in our National Constitution.

I would like to believe that, at the very least, we did our best to live up to the commitments we made in these Manifestoes.

In reality, regardless of their length, these Manifestoes, including the Local Government Manifestoes, made commitments relating to a few issues.

These related to the eradication of poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment; the elimination of racial, gender and geographic inequalities; the achievement of sustained economic growth and shared development; and the use of affirmative action to speed up the achievement of the objective of social equity.

They also sought to ensure the realisation of the interconnected objectives of national reconciliation and the social transformation as visualised in our Constitution; the deepening of our democracy, building on the proposition that ‘the people shall govern’; and moral regeneration – achieving ‘the RDP of the soul’ - which would militate against crime, corruption and unacceptable social behaviour.

They also aimed to promote the objective of the renaissance of Africa, and striving to ensure the establishment of an equitable system of international relations.

Among other things this would help to ensure that the poor in the world, the majority of humanity, play their rightful role in terms of helping to determine the nature and content of the global system of political, economic, security and social governance, especially within the context of the process of globalisation.

I remain convinced that these are the fundamental and strategic objectives which must surely inform the policies and programmes of all our democratically elected governments, regardless of which formation our electorate chooses freely to elect as our governing party.

These are the issues to which I referred earlier in this article when I wrote about “our real and pressing national matters”, which should under no circumstances be drowned by ephemeral and apparently major stories whose only merit is their capacity to generate sensational ‘headline’ news and salacious gossip.

I would therefore argue that our media, including City Press, which have an acknowledged professional obligation to inform the public, have a related duty continuously to draw the attention of our population to our fundamental national issues.

I am certain that, it in this regard, our media has an obligation to resist the temptation to achieve greater popularity, and increased profits, by highlighting stories which amount to no more than the fare on which the tabloid media feasts.

When I served in leading positions in both the ANC and the Government, I made a commitment to all our people honestly to promote the objectives I have detailed above as the strategic goals which informed the content of the ANC Elections Manifestoes to which I have referred.

In his City Press interview, and its essence and real meaning, Advocate Willem Heath argued that I acted in a manner which fatally betrayed the solemn commitments in these Manifestoes.

This is truly a grave accusation which seeks publicly to denounce not only me, Thabo Mbeki, but also everybody else in the ANC and the then Governments, who allowed that I had the possibility and space to perpetrate the gross misdemeanours he alleges.

Heath owes it to our people, to the rest of Africa and the world to substantiate the statements he made. Equally, the rest of us, the accused, have a sacred responsibility to respond honestly and openly to the charges which Heath made.

In the end, the fundamental and critical matter at issue is whether as South Africans, including those mandated by our people through free elections, as I was, we dispose of the necessary integrity to do as we say, and to refuse to allow that personal agendas, of all kinds, assume primacy over everything which serves the genuine interests of all our people.

Through a few choice comments, Heath has denounced at least three of our successive democratic governments, asserting that they were constituted of dishonest and criminal people.

The Heath allegations have provided all of us as South Africans with the welcome opportunity to ‘out the truth’.

If we respond honestly to this opportunity, as we surely must, thus would we bury, hopefully once and for all, the pernicious practice of the use of lies to pursue particular political agendas and, alternatively, to use demagogy, State power and all manner of deception and abuse of authority to hide high State misdemeanours, which Heath claims I did.

In the end it may very well be that the comments made by Heath in his City Press interview will have helped to lance a virulently poisonous boil on our body politic.

This consists of either the shameless propagation of lies by people outside of government to achieve selfish political objectives, or nefarious and disguised actions undertaken by those in positions of power, like me during the period to which Heath refers, fundamentally to betray the interests of the people and negate the objectives spelt out in our Constitution, in their personal interest.

All this dictates that everything should be done to respond to the ‘Pandora’s box’ which Heath opened, with no restrictions.

What should constitute national success in this regard is not whether Willem Heath or Thabo Mbeki emerges as the victor.

The victor should be the truth.

It should also be the unity of our nation as it continues seriously to address the fundamental challenges it faces, refusing to be diverted by self-serving interventions which have absolutely nothing to do with the objective to build a united, people-centred and winning nation, informed by the principles of ubuntu.

With acknowledgements to Thabo Mbeki and City Press.

*1       Truth be told, corruption is a bigger crime against humanity than apartheid.

Apartheid was wrong, but it was borne of fear and of a historical development and after Verwoerd most people knew it was wrong. We cured this wrong within 35 years - without a civil war.

Post-apartheid ANC-led South Africa has being going for 17 years and is only shifting in second gear regarding corruption which is already costing us about 20% of our GNP per year (the GNP of the RSA is about USD500 million).

In any case, it is a gross exaggeration to say that apartheid is a crime against humanity.

It was a very serious wrongdoing practiced by a group of fearful ignoramuses (about 5 million - of whom about 2 million were anti anyway) against a slightly larger group (about 25 million).

In those days humanity consisted of about 5 billion persons (now it is just over 6 billion).

Any so arithmetically apartheid directly affected about 0,5% of humanity.

It one extrapolates to say that apartheid caused the Border War and that affected all humanity in Africa south of the equator, one say that apartheid affected maybe 1,0% to 1,5% of humanity.

But apartheid may have affected some of those south of the equator, but it was hardly organised crime against them.

Indeed Angola and Zimbabwe (about 30 million humans) have been committing and are still committing far greater crimes against themselves for 50 years or more.

South Africa's Border war in any case only lasted in earnest from about 1974 to 1988, a mere 18 years.

All in all directed apartheid killed less than a couple of hundred people and the Border War possibly 20 000 people.

Apartheid never had a policy of killing people. Some operatives in the system such as Eugene de Kok, Dirk Coetzee, Wouter Basson and those behind Operation Hammer killed these few hundred people, almost all of whom were in any case full-blown combatants.

On the other hand Nazi Germany's national fascism lasted from the late 1920s until 1945 and took an entire world war to eradicate. Nazism killed in the region of 100 million people.

It was official Nazi policy to kill about 6 million Jews, about 10 million Slavs and about 2 million Gypsies and other unfortunates.

The war itself killed several million Allied troops and several million Axis troops.

Millions of civilians from Scandinavia, Great Britain, Europe, Asia and even North Africa were killed, many purposefully, a few collaterally.

The Soviet Union used the opportunity to commit genocide against some 20 million of its own Slavic population. Indeed Stalin killed more of his own than Hitler did.

Nazism spawn tragic, but comparatively small, consequences in Italy, but major consequences in Asia where the Japanese committed genocide on the Chinese and the most unspeakable crimes against the Allies. It took two nuclear weapons to end this crime against humanity.

The Germans can count themselves very lucky not to have received the first of the nuclear weapons. But it cost hundreds of thousands of American, Canadian, British, Commonwealth and Soviet troops' lives to rid the German monster of criminals against humanity.

Any although not all Germans were bad, most at that time were ardent and committed Nazis.

In the RSA, even at the height of apartheid, far less than half the white population of 5 million can be said to have been ardent and committed racists.

Even in latter years in places such as Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Rwanda and Somalia there have been crimes against humanity that dwarf apartheid.

These were based on pure hatred, greed and tribalism and led to literally millions of deaths in each instance.

Apartheid was based mainly on fear, with a bit of base racism thrown in.

Now when it comes to corruption, the knock-on effects of it are that millions of the 700 inhabitants of the African continent are hungry, malnourished and diseased. Literally millions die every year from malaria, TB, AIDS and hunger. Even in the RSA black children have recently died from a combination of hunger, thirst and exposure. In South Africa 20 000 people are murdered every year and about the same killed in road accidents. Yet over 60% of the police forces and traffic police are corrupt and don't do their duty properly if at all. The chief of police is corrupt.

Corruption takes or blunts the lives of literally hundreds of millions of lives in Africa alone.

And it's not limited to Africa and it's not even limited to the First World.

Right now these is a trial in proceedings in Munich where two Ferrostaal managers are about to be sentenced to large fines and prison sentences (unfortunately suspended) for Ferrostaal's corruption of Portuguese and Greek officials in buying Type 209 submarines (the same that the SA Navy acquired in identical circumstances). Although only a minor fraction in the greater fiscal ills these countries are experiencing, they are contributing factors to the Euro woes throughout the Euro Zone.

Other "second world" countries such as Taiwan, Malaysia and those in South America have also experienced major fiscal hemorrhage from corruption, especially in Arms Deals, but also anything to do with big business and where the likes of Siemens and Mercedes Benz are involved.

Corruption is a crime against humanity on a truly global scale than dwarfs apartheid.

Even over the period of a generation corruption is a crime against humanity with consequences in the same order of magnitude as Nazism.

Over the eons, corruption aggregates as the greatest crime ever committed against humanity.

Topping it all, corruption is also very often a crime against the earth.

But, as usual, this arsehole Mbeki, must play the race card

And finally, I am no apologist for apartheid. I have suffered greatly because of apartheid, albeit not to the same degree as Steve Biko, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and many others.

*2      What Mbeki is going to say here is that he became aware of how the apartheid government effected acquisition, especially armament acquisition, and therefore he decided to do it his way.

He hinted at this before in his Fishers of Corrupt Men digital epistle, viz. :

An aggrieved potential and unsuccessful sub-contractor *3 has taken his grievance to our courts. For this reason, we will not comment on the matters he raises, which the fishers nevertheless use triumphantly and wilfully to justify their campaign. But this gentleman decided to raise, in the media, the matter of an earlier process to acquire corvettes for our Navy.

The gentleman concerned makes the false allegation*4 that during the life of the Government of National Unity, formed in 1994, a contract for four corvettes to be built by Bazan of Spain "was cancelled after being awarded". This is not true. The preceding apartheid Cabinet had not approved this contract. The GNU Cabinet decided not to enter into this contract.

Bazan entered the later competition to supply the four corvettes, and lost to the GFC. This issue is of relevance and interest only because of the controversy that some have brought into the current defence procurement. It is an interesting coincidence that this controversy has focused so intensely on the corvettes.*5

In time the details of the truth will come out about how the controversy concerning the 2000 defence procurement emerged and persisted. The gentleman litigant, who has raised the matter of Bazan of Spain, may be proved to have been justified in raising this issue, even if he made false claims about a Bazan contract that never was.

This detailed truthful account would tell our country interesting things about such matters as defence procurement during the apartheid years, and the promotion of political careers and fortunes in contemporary South Africa. It would tell a story about the political uses of the racist stereotypes that are part of our daily menu of information and perception, and the formation of popular consciousness.

It would inform us about the impact or otherwise of the domestic and international apartheid networks on our democratic order, and the moral integrity of those who correctly claim that they fought for the victory of this order, and therefore seek to position themselves as its true representatives.

The sooner this fascinating story is told the better, so that we can improve our performance with regard to the achievement of the critical objective of building a truly people-centred society.

*3      That's me.

*4      This Anus accuses me of making a false allegation.

I never said that the contract had actually been award to Bazan.

What I said is that Bazan had been finally selected as the contractor.

Many SA Navy and Armscor people (I believe in the region of 70 of them) were already working at Bazan's shipyard in Spain. I personally know two of them, both naval architects.

I have since and very recently heard from a naval officer of general rank that the Bazan programme team was actually in the country from Spain for the contract award and signature ceremony. The project officer (who I personally know) was extremely embarrassed and shuttled them back to the airport.

They were extremely angry.

Mandela and Mbeki refused to sign the contract.

That contact was for about R2,4 billion Rand in 1995 Rands (say R4,3 billion in 1998 Rands).

But to add injury to insult, the Spanish won the evaluation on the second round of acquisition.

Mbeki through Chippy Shaik inter alia made sure his friend the Germans, led by his mate the equally corrupt Helmut Kohl, won the second round.

The final contact was for R6,873 billion Rand in 1998 Rands.

That's about R2,5 billion Rands worth of corruption.

Any we only got half the combat suite.

That's about R3,5 billion Rands worth of corruption.

*5      That's no co-incidence, that's me.

And finally, the biggest legacy this crackhead and his boss Nelson Mandela have left themselves and our beloved country is the cusp of the slipperiest slope of its national corruption - the Strategic Defence Packages (SDPs) or Arms Deal as now more commonly known.