Publication: Sunday Times Issued: Date: 2014-06-01 Reporter: Simpiwe Piliso

Kasrils, Lekota to testify on arms deal

 

Publication 

Sunday Times

Date 2014-06-01
Reporter

Simpiwe Piliso

Web Link www.timeslive.co.za



FORMER cabinet ministers Ronnie Kasrils (intelligence) and Mosiuoa Lekota (defence) will appear before the Seriti commission of inquiry into the 1999 arms deal tomorrow and on Tuesday.

Commission spokesman William Baloyi said they would be “questioned about their roles in the arms deal during their tenure”.

The commission, set up by President Jacob Zuma in 2011 and headed by Judge Willie Seriti, is tasked with investigating alleged corruption in the multibillion-rand deal.

The government acquired, among other military items, frigates and submarines for the navy and 26 Gripen fighter aircraft and 24 Hawk trainer aircraft for the air force.

Former finance minister Trevor Manuel and former president Thabo Mbeki are scheduled to give their testimonies next week.

It emerged this week that Britain’s Financial Reporting Council has closed its investigation into the deal, giving reprieve to a host of South African companies, businessmen and politicians who allegedly pocketed bribes.

The council was probing advice given by financial services firm KPMG to BAE Systems, which supplied the trainer jets.

The council’s audit, which began examining KPMG’s confidential records in 2010, was expected to disclose the names of influential individuals who helped BAE in exchange for cash.

Just months before the audit, Anwar Dramat, then chief of the directorate of priority crimes investigation (Hawks), told parliament that it would cost too much to pursue an investigation into corruption in the arms deal.

However, the investigation in the UK started with the council scrutinising KPMG’s professional services and audits between 1997 and 2007 relating to commissions paid by BAE to third-party agents and companies. BAE reportedly set up a system of offshore, anonymous companies to funnel payments around the world.

With acknowledgement to Simpiwe Piliso
and Sunday Times.



For sport lovers on the aircraft side this is about the sum total of it.

Dawie Griesel, Erich Esterhuyse (both top managers of Armscor at the time) and Lt Gen Pierre Steyn (the accounting officer of the DoD) have clearly painted the picture of how Joe Modise and Chippy Shaik put the irregular mechanisms in place to make the Arms Deal happen.

That is especially on the aircraft side.

The British Serious Fraud Squad has investigated the case and effectively concluded that there was corruption on a massive scale, mostly by British Aerospace, but also by Saab.

But the SFO declined to prosecute.

On the South African side Menzi Simelane, first as DJ of Justice and then the Director of National Prosecutions interfered with the SFO's and Scorpions joint investigation.

That is why the investigation collapsed.

On the corvette and corvette combat suit side I have worked out most of the similar shenanigans, starting at the Mbeki/Modise/Shaik levels and implemented down the line and reported this to both the Constitutional Court in  the form of a formal affidavit and to the Arms Procurement Commission in the form of a comprehensive, but draft, Witness Statement.

One of their lackeys went ape shit this week in this regard.

After several deep breaths of fresh valley air, it is all quite amusing.

It reminds of Sir William's Macbeth :
 

There would have been a time for such a word.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.
 

But Macbeth is just a simple moffie by comparison to this noisy and perjurious idiot.

And unlike Macbeth's poor player this one will be heard of more a plenty.

For the sports lovers on the corvette side there will be plenty more.