2002-03-25

The Editor
Rapport

Sir

I write in response to the letter from Bertus Celliers, Armscor's Corporate Communication Manager, published in the Rapport of 2002-03-10. Mr Celliers was responding to Andries Cornelissen’s article "Arms Firm Sues to Get Information", published in the edition of 2002-03-03.

Mr Celliers has taken the opportunity of using your newspaper for making the following assertion to the public: "Dr. Young’s statement creates the impression with the public that Armscor is playing for time and that they are not serious in complying with the regulations of the act.".

However, the facts of the matter are the following :

Regarding Armscor, Mr Cornelisson's article stated that: "According to Young, Armscor requested an extension of 90 days.". No stretch of logic can lead to the interpretation that I created, nor intend to create, the impression with the public that Armscor is playing for time and that they are not serious in complying with the regulations of the act.

• When Mr Cornelisson telephoned me on the Friday before publication of his article to request a status update of my various requests for access to information, which was a conversation and not an interview that we conducted in English, I told him that Armscor had advised us that they would be requiring the full ninety days allowed by the Act in order to provide us with a response. This corresponds precisely with Armscor's letter to us of 2002-02-14, to which I referred in my conversation with Mr Cornelisson in order to preserve accuracy.

Thus, Mr Celliers's letter is a blatant attempt to use the media to disseminate corporate misinformation on behalf of Armscor. As such, I advise him as follows:

• Armscor is owned by the State, which is in turn owned by the citizens of the Republic of South Africa, including most readers of Rapport.

• He should review the corporate ethics of Armscor regarding the use of the media to disseminate to his shareholders and others such misinformation, especially that regarding other South Africans.

• He should unreservedly and without delay apologise to the public, his employer, Mr Cornelisson and to me for his highly unprofessional conduct, as well as retract the inferences he has made.

You may publish this letter in English or literally-translated Afrikaans or both and I shall also be sending a copy to Armscor.

Yours faithfully 

Richard Young