Just 8 Top Guns to fly our R27billion fighters

<p><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><em><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="color:#990000;">The South African government ordered 26 Gripen C/D fighter aircraft in</span> </span><strong><span style="color:#990000;">1999</span></strong>, <span style="color:#990000;">courtesy of the taxpayer,</span> <span style="color:#990000;">remember? the multibillion-rand arms deal? Who could forget! The SAAF Gripen force, although</span> <strong><span style="color:#990000;">still not</span></strong> <span style="color:#990000;">formally operational, conducted a part of the air policing during the FIFA soccer World Cup. When the president of Brazil turned up to cheer on his side at the World Cup, SA was ready. A flight of South African Air Force Gripen jets buzzed the stadium. Showing off for the man! Pitching the Gripen with Football. No mean feat, we're really making strides hey. And it only keeps getting better... now the air force is in trouble, being unable to operate the Hawks or the Gripens properly. Why? You guessed it - insufficient funds! The situation is so bad that some aircraft, most importantly the Gripen Advanced Light Fighter Aircraft, may have to be mothballed. We now face the grim prospect of having an air force ‘without wings’. The Gripen mothballing threat follows reports that the air force’s Rooivalk attack helicopters have also been grounded, and that the 12 Rooivalks in 16 Squadron had been put in storage outside Bloemfontein and were not flying.</span></span></span></em><span style="color:#990000;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnEuD99KwvwF2LeOnt9u70B5EC6MHry40zFHu-Zzbu6n8qLCxZo2LWPc2ydxYg6ccPVxtZcBTXmn6eo_ovDwbWqc0DYMOoTGWYzZsnXr4G0bSfuIu3n9dnTzFNKyylzOSusO3X8_PsaYH/s1600/world-cup-gripens.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551753006775728482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnEuD99KwvwF2LeOnt9u70B5EC6MHry40zFHu-Zzbu6n8qLCxZo2LWPc2ydxYg6ccPVxtZcBTXmn6eo_ovDwbWqc0DYMOoTGWYzZsnXr4G0bSfuIu3n9dnTzFNKyylzOSusO3X8_PsaYH/s400/world-cup-gripens.png" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 297px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>THE SA Air Force (SAAF) has only eight fully trained fighter pilots and two navigators for its 26 Gripen fighter jets, which cost the country about R19.908 billion to buy.<br /><br />This was revealed yesterday by Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Freedom Front Plus defence spokesman Pieter Groenewald.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;">(Pic) - South African Air Force Gripens fly past one of the World Cup stadiums.</span></em><br /><br />Last month the air force invoked “national security” to avoid telling MPs how many fully trained combat pilots it had to fly its multi-billion-rand Gripen fighter (R19.908 billion) and Hawk fighter-trainer aircraft (R7.2 billion) - making for a combined R27.01 billion.<br /><br />SAAF air capability planning director Brigadier-General Wiseman Mbambo told members of Parliament’s defence portfolio committee in a briefing that “inadequate funding” of the Hawk and Gripen combat systems had placed these “in the balance”, and the SAAF “has not been able to generate the required number of flying hours and re-provision the systems adequately”.<br /><br />This prompted at least two MPs to ask about the number of qualified combat pilots available for the Hawks and Gripens.<br /><br />Responding, Mbambo said: “It’s digging into the actual capability that we have.”<br /><br />He asked the then-committee chairman Nyami Booi to be excused from answering on grounds of national security, and Booi agreed.<br /><br />Mbambo had revealed that the SAAF’s budget allocation for 2009/10 had been R3.1bn, of which R1.6bn was for personnel and R1.5bn for operations.<br /><br />Groenewald said yesterday that it was “worrying that South Africa had 30 fighter pilots in 2005 and 20 fighter pilots in 2008. Now we only have eight”.<br /><br />“We however purchased 26 Gripen fighter jets, but 18 of these will be locked away in a store.” </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p>

Just 8 Top Guns to fly our R27billion fighters

The South African government ordered 26 Gripen C/D fighter aircraft in 1999 , courtesy of the taxpayer, remember? the multibillion-rand ar...

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Jacob Zuma is a sex-obsessed bigot with four wives and 35 children. So why is Britain fawning over this vile buffoon?

<p><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">By Stephen Robinson<br />on 02nd March 2010</span></em><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444119095084985522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnsm0h0QTvuy5TgyIk85iKV-ld7ZAgVmkGOCj5wH9rx19avpV-EpB86n5_b8kxULW7aK_f7VT5jI82uyZqtFIDkVSWXGaFimZK70D-lfsRDpwLJEYomXX4TGVfeKFHl11UjUvtTQweAxK/s400/zapiro0203_517056d.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 282px; CURSOR: hand" />Spare a thought for the Buckingham Palace protocol officials tomorrow when His Excellency President Jacob Zuma arrives in London for his first state visit to these shores.</span></strong><br /><br />For this incoming 'One hundred per cent Zulu Boy', as the South African President styles himself when he has an election to win, presents unique challenges of planning for the courtiers.<br /><br />The formal announcement of the state visit primly notes that the President will be accompanied during his three-day stay at Buckingham Palace by 'his wife Mrs Thobeka Madiba Zuma'. This is not untrue - but nor is it quite the whole truth.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444094403350338386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHAj0NIm0p2iXIukd3IxmoloOHlBAF39E-uaOV4tmW7x9CXqXMuAU3PFWMH1_vMqRQd5g-wGEsoGlz0NM1OHICB4fE_nrgJrxbQYSBafGTmedyGbhoX6C-qke3e0yTjZBp6QIbUmDSBsgs/s400/ZUMA-BUFFOON.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 328px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" /><br /><p align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">Buffoon: Jacob Zuma with one of his four wives</span></strong> </p><p align="left">Because Thobeka is just one of Mr Zuma's four living wives, not including one from Mozambique who committed suicide in 2000. She is also one of the estimated ten women with whom the libidinous Zuma has sired the 20 children he acknowledges to be his own.<br /><br />On top of that, Zuma has paid lobolo - a sort of tribal deposit on a future bride - to the families of at least two more potential wives.<br /><br />On a recent visit to South Africa, I was told very confidently by a man who knows the inner workings of the government that Zuma's true tally is actually 35 children, including a set of twins with a woman from Ukraine.<br /><br />One thing is clear. Jacob Zuma could not be more different from the man in whose long shadow he must walk - South Africa's great and first democratic leader, Nelson Mandela.<br /><br />But to go back to the hard-pressed Palace courtiers in charge of protocol, how can they prevent disaster in the diplomatic minefield of tomorrow night's state banquet?<br /><br />At these state dinners it is traditional to invite leaders of the 'arts community' to break up the stodgy ranks of diplomats and establishment bigwigs who tend to get the bulk of the invitations.<br /><br />But will theatrical greats such as Sir Ian McKellen be comfortable breaking bread with a man who has described same-sex marriage as 'a disgrace to the nation and to God', and who boasted that when he was a young man, any sensible homosexual would have got out of his way because: 'I would have knocked him out.'<br /><br />Will our bishops want to nibble canapes with a man who won the South African election last year by appearing at rallies and singing the old ANC guerilla war song: 'Bring Me My Machine Gun'? At the time, this was interpreted by many South Africans as a grotesque disavowal of Mandela's exhortation to his supporters to throw their weapons into the sea.<br /><br />And for that matter, would Harriet Harman, assiduously promoting her equality agenda as the General Election nears, wish to discuss gender issues with a man who, when charged with rape in 2005, protested in court that the alleged victim was wearing an extremely short skirt. </p><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444094418998531922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE6ggVu3-PnGx0mhyu3cMGdW1H2hoMqvjRTf2HzYW6rChwWxpUXNWec2tdsg4wR78FF4l5p-ewlZ-8l9CtvtjuovDkxu2PWvIyT0ATMJSC2p4mF79eitJMq1PwH2BwoiRwfLoq2S74J58i/s400/ZUMA-3-WIVES.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 250px; CURSOR: hand" /><br /><p align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">Polygamous: Zuma with three of his wives - Sizakele, right, Nompumelo, left, and Thobeka</span></strong> </p><p align="left">'In Zulu culture you cannot leave a woman if she is ready,' Zuma told the judge. 'To deny her sex would have been tantamount to rape.'<br /><br />Knowing that the woman he had imposed himself upon was HIV positive and that he had not used a condom, Zuma took a postcoital shower, believing that would protect him against the virus.<br /><br />The Foreign Office expects the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to submit themselves to an average of only two incoming state visits a year, so why was it thought necessary to honour Zuma in this way? It is not as though South African leaders have been strangers to Buckingham Palace in recent years.<br /><br />President Mandela came on a state visit two years after winning the first democratic election in 1994, and returned again 18 months ago during his 90th birthday celebrations. Thabo Mbeki, Zuma's predecessor as president, came over with his wife on a state visit in 2001.<br /><br />Which all means there was certainly no diplomatic need for Britain to mark Zuma's installation in power last year. During almost 60 years on the throne, the Queen has learned she broadly has to do what the Foreign Office tells her, so she throws open Buckingham Palace and pins medals on the chest of any murderous dictator the government wishes to suck up to.<br /><br />Zuma may not have matched the grotesque misrule of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who was welcomed to the Palace in 1994. But he tends to side with the mobs who have invaded the white-owned, productive farms rather than those who used to produce the country's food.</span></span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">'Europeans often ignore the fact that Mugabe is very popular among Africans. In their eyes, he has given blacks their country back after centuries of colonialism,' Zuma has said. 'The people love him, so how can we condemn him?'<br /><br />No wonder that affluent South Africans, black and white, are now so concerned by the course South Africa is taking under Zuma, and fearful they are on a trajectory towards becoming the continent's next basket case.<br /><br />It seems utterly misguided to have invited Zuma at a time when it is becoming ever more evident that <span style="color:#990000;">South Africa is being turned into an organised <span style="font-family:arial;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">kleptocracy</span></strong>.</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">With timing that seems suspiciously fortunate given the looming state visit, the government this month announced a deal with British Aerospace to end investigations into whether bribes were paid in several recent contracts.<br /><br />This is fortunate for Zuma - he was deeply implicated in the bribes paid by European defence contractors, including British Aerospace, over a gigantic 1998 South African arms deal.<br /><br />Schabir Shaik, Zuma's personal financial adviser, was one of the few men to stand trial for corruption as Thabo Mbeki's government kicked over the traces of the arms deal and other corruption scandals.</span> </p><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444094409181389026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheGfVVFk_FXgnFOWJprV9g_KXW8erZMUCJ3PAGCJiYlXxtKEVMvf9tJLxTDRL_OC_xkKR5Q-eV5-ZpbkfbCag7KC3_ZygIPHrWywyWvbswYTteYMW0DJn2FrOEeFeSGJDwEol9KbR2FhTi/s400/ZUMA-LONDON-VISIT.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 244px; CURSOR: hand" /><br /><p align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000000;">State visit: The flags of South Africa and Britain fly together on the Mall in London for Zuma's visit</span></strong><br /></p><p align="left"></span><span style="color:#000000;">Shaik was convicted of making several illegal payments to Zuma, and in effect underwriting the cost of his substantial private home to accommodate his various wives and children.</span></span></p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#990000;">The truth is that</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">corruption</span></strong> <span style="color:#990000;">is now so prevalent that South Africans have lost their capacity to be shocked by it</span></span><span style="color:#990000;">.</span></span></span><span style="color:#990000;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />But Zuma may not be forgiven for his flamboyant sex life. Having been acquitted of rape, then mobbed by jubilant supporters, Zuma believed he was beyond criticism.<br /><br />Yet he now finds himself in political difficulty after the recent revelation of the birth of the 20th acknowledged child, to a woman in Durban. This broke a deal he made with the party that even if he could not conquer his libido, he would at least behave with discretion, and stop impregnating casual sexual partners.<br /><br />Like the 19th-century missionaries who attempted to stamp it out, the ruling ANC party disapproves of polygamy, partly because it reinforces white men's stereotypes of Africans as somehow uncivilised.<br /><br />But Aids is the much more compelling explanation for why Zuma finds himself in trouble. With an HIV infection rate feared to be close to 30 per cent, and with South Africa's rural areas overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of Aids orphans, Zuma's manic promiscuity is setting a terrible example and has become a matter of grave public concern.<br /><br />The ANC was forced, in a formal statement, to acknowledge the level of public disquiet about Zuma's conduct. And there is now even talk at the highest level of the ANC that Zuma might not be allowed a second term as president.<br /><br />Since Thabo Mbeki (who had demented ideas about Aids) was forced from office, the government has made progress in changing the sexual attitudes of black South Africans. Zuma has blown a hole in this campaign for the sake of his nights of passion.<br /><br />No doubt the guests tomorrow night in London will be too polite to raise such delicate matters with the guest of honour.<br /><br />But millions of South Africans, viewing television images of the Zulu Boy at Buckingham Palace, will wonder why the Queen is honouring a man who back home is rapidly becoming a very bad joke.<br /></span><br /><em><span style="color:#000099;">Source: - <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1254748/Jacob-Zuma-sex-obsessed-bigot--Britain-fawning-him.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1254748/Jacob-Zuma-sex-obsessed-bigot--Britain-fawning-him.html</a> </span></em></span><p align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><span style="color:#000099;"></p></span></em></span><p></p><br /></span>

Jacob Zuma is a sex-obsessed bigot with four wives and 35 children. So why is Britain fawning over this vile buffoon?

By Stephen Robinson on 02nd March 2010 Spare a thought for the Buckingham Palace protocol officials tomorrow when His Excellency President J...

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Images of a dying man

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">How much more evidence is needed before the government takes action against Shaik?</span></strong><br /><br />The supposedly "gravely ill" Shaik looked healthy in photographs of him carrying bread and magazines, and getting into his BMW X6, which were published in City Press yesterday.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417690392446232658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGKE-TjoMRkrnsAPwf0uLFfh3YY5tuQVTl3xRaDJowWnlx4fg8PSHCLz9utpWuxqVsS1wPRyfsRIKmYSkQ_MFXulGWitESoIYsYvgGKJX-YEicg2P83AwVUGGLHnfzqw42ZRL9e3SQw4fp/s400/shaik-bmw.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 385px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />Shaik was quoted as saying he suffered from uncontrollable stress, but "being home, just seeing the greenery, feeling the sun, getting fresh air, having good food, that alone allows recuperation. That helps me reduce my stress and, to some extent, my recovery."<br /><br />Shaik was further quoted as saying he was spending a fortune on glasses, because the retina of one of his eyes had been damaged as a result of high blood pressure.<br /><br />"I'm on goji berries now. Someone told me that with them I'll make a miraculous recovery ... hoping my eyesight will improve, but it isn't."<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417690383817794962" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUkYOL6yb-cRTvPRwxRWZEzxhWdO_RR2-QZdl-8kHBODu_KwDzrUT1l9W19QRuvFIMw61mpsIlGL9ew-m2dac9IZri_KBLG8_Rl0ya0WBJen5wf1tlTX1kPQZfzXNXqo-Q-dpFjCZg4aW/s400/shaik-portrait.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 345px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />The paper reported that Shaik had aggressively asked the photographer why he didn't rather apply his "creative skills" to finding out why he was not getting a pardon, "because the longer I stay as a prisoner, other people are equally guilty".<br /><br />"Why should I even be asking for a pardon? If three people were part of a so-called plot to elicit funds from the French, why are the French free, why is the president free and why is Shaik still sitting as a convict. Cmon!" he is quoted as saying.<br /><br />Shaik was also spotted in October playing golf. While he denied it, golfers insisted they had seen him.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417694360224296626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCdLh4WQ0nCu8-3CXShvu4i1tuKElh0lFocOG2iSC0Lq9iH6Gg_ZymFDWZm-43fbWWhV8Dm3WOXmRUbBRuF7uIaui40fwbKQiv3ykNZsbYkSPmBz6B4tJ4LXEfhYFwI4m-vg2ZJvZJPhfC/s400/shaik-golf.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 214px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />DA correctional services spokesman James Selfe said yesterday Shaik's release on medical parole should be re-evaluated as he was making a mockery of the system.<br /><br />"His release on medical parole now needs to be reviewed. How much more proof does the minister need before deciding to act against the convicted fraudster?<br /><br />"The larger problem is, of course, that the lack of action by the department following these reports further undermines the criminal justice system in the eyes of South Africans, who perceive that there is one law for the politically connected and another for ordinary citizens," he said.<br /><br />Selfe added there was absolutely no doubt that Shaik was released for political reasons and not on medical grounds.<br /><br />IFP correctional services spokesman Albert Mncwango said that because of Shaik, the credibility of the country's parole system was in tatters and being used for political expediencies.<br /><br />"People will not stop complaining about Shaik because he was released on the basis that he was dying. But it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that his state of health is not what it was said to be at the time.<br /><br />"Correctional Services needs to explain to the public what has changed since his release, or people will believe it was politically motivated," he said.<br /><br />Shaik was convicted on two counts of corruption and one of fraud in 2005. He served only two years and four months of his 15-year sentence, spending most of the time in hospital because of high blood pressure, depression and chest pains.<br /><br />After Shaik's release, his brother Yunis was reported as saying Shaik was "gravely ill", his kidneys and brain had been badly affected and he had lost 50 percent of his sight.<br /><br />Yunis yesterday said there had been no change in Shaik's medical condition.<br /><br />"His parole allows him to leave his home, and each time he does, he is tormented. It is not a reportable event to go to a pharmacy to acquire medicine or to a shop to purchase bread," he said.<br /><br />Correctional services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said: "No evidence had been provided before about Shaik and these are new allegations that have come about regarding Shaik's violation of parole. We have asked for a report from our regional office and will comment after we have studied it." </span><p>

Images of a dying man

How much more evidence is needed before the government takes action against Shaik? The supposedly "gravely ill" Shaik looked healt...

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Arms deal scandal part II : Here we go again

<p><div align="center"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Another arms deal scandal which could cost South Africans R47 billion.</span></strong></span></span></div><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieNZKwMF7pNpNW5OBcGPCZx6bmaUe5J5eRFJkfxb-mv3UWR-ac2tnV7QH-Q8GILOlm_1ezSGpgtAQ9M1K_w98um6Pxg1GtEpBQCUVfQ8tcbktVZIVizEOWaXU52_2VeehvZFsnmltRu84/s1600-h/airbus+A400M.jpg"></a><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394035490258383874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPAFS6Ut7sTr1sqdXWWa8fLSTTmnX5jgjoFEx7OIV6lvI9HF5bjFCxrBb_vYnDLQZ28YNtuMjYW71wR16APz4xsjTXwKzfQNYrx4yjAV31NtEozWadPERY0mWb8phmF0FNhOiLXJzFm4/s400/airbus+A400M.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 191px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">A serving cabinet minister and a retired South African National Defence Force (SANDF) major-general stand to make millions from a deal with Airbus that can bankrupt the SANDF.</span></strong><br /><br />At R47 billion the Airbus jets will consume the entire SAAF budget for at least three years.<br /><br />Yesterday The Citizen established that among those set to make a killing from the deal are a serving cabinet minister and a retired SANDF general and the widow of controversial Defence Minister Joe Modise.<br /><br />On April 28, 2005 South Africa signed a deal with Airbus for the delivery of eight jets capable of ferrying heavy equipment such as armoured vehicles and large helicopters as well as combat troops thousands of kilometres.<br /><br />The deal was inexplicable as the SAAF already owned a fleet of 12 C130 transport aircraft that had been extensively modernised and upgraded by Marshall Aviation in Britain and Thales in France.<br /><br />Only months after the deal was signed, Major-General Jackie Sedibe was made a director of Aerosud, a South African company which is the local business partner of Airbus. Aerosud stand to make millions from the deal.<br /><br />At the time Sedibe joined the board she was still a serving SANDF officer.<br /><br />Department of defence spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya told The Citizen that officers of Sedibe’s rank were allowed to hold business interests, providing they had the permission of the Minister of Defence.<br /><br />It is not clear if Sedibe had this permission at the time she joined Aerosud, which holds a number of contracts with the SANDF and department of defence.<br /><br />Another director of Aerosud is Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Hlengiwe Mkhize. Mkhize became a director of Aerosud in 2000.<br /><br /></p></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Sisulu 'knew about arms deal for months'</span></strong><br /><br />The Democratic Alliance on Friday called on Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to reveal the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft acquisition details.<br /><br />Information about the dodgy Airbus A400M arms deal should be made public and investigated by a special multiparty ad hoc committee of Parliament, DA spokesman David Maynier said.<br /><br />On Thursday, Sisulu stated information about the deal should not have been made public because it was embarrassing and compromised diplomatic relations.<br /><br />"But it now emerges that the minister was briefed and informed about the Airbus A400M deal.<br /><br />"The fact is that the minister was informed and has known about the risk posed by the Airbus A400M arms deal for months.<br /><br />"The minister appears to be reverting to her default position which is to cover up rather than to open up," Maynier said.<br /><br />The key question was why, if the minister knew about the massive risk posed by the deal, was the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence and military veterans not informed, he said.<br /><br />The latest revelations about the deal raised even more questions including whose interests were really served with revelations that Deputy Correctional Services Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize and former Major-General Jackie Sedibe were directors of Aerosud, a local company with an interest in the Airbus A400M arms deal.<br /><br /></p></span></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">What was the real cost of the eight transport aircraft, given the Airbus claim that the R47 billion price tag was exaggerated? </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Why was there a failure to provide for maintenance costs of the transport aircraft,</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">why in the first place was there no tender process for the acquisition of the aircraft,</span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"The public has a right to know not only how we got into the Airbus A400M mess, but also how we are going to dig ourselves out of the Airbus A400M mess. </span></span></p>

Arms deal scandal part II : Here we go again

Another arms deal scandal which could cost South Africans R47 billion. A serving cabinet minister and a retired South African National Defen...

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Shaik spotted driving BMW

<p><a href="http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/8337cf9003ad41f49b06830348fb3aa1/11-08-2009%2008-08/Call_for_fresh_Shaik_probe" id="ctl00_ctl00_MainBodyPlaceholder_Column2Placeholder_articleStatistics_rptMostRead_ctl02_lnkArticle"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Call for fresh Shaik probe</span></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEies2SKAWQGdU_couO3UVNwtSUyA7wzcyJanAQZ0TtkqfJU09a51_cwymFtoATTWQEk55GqKxoJ4EQXZsHC1mU4G9Cfbq5s0aOOLbHWuibbP-9dSn9wzBBxLXeoEu_fe_TIEQJa7T0Ifq4/s1600-h/shaik.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368445178390293714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEies2SKAWQGdU_couO3UVNwtSUyA7wzcyJanAQZ0TtkqfJU09a51_cwymFtoATTWQEk55GqKxoJ4EQXZsHC1mU4G9Cfbq5s0aOOLbHWuibbP-9dSn9wzBBxLXeoEu_fe_TIEQJa7T0Ifq4/s400/shaik.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 319px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 313px" /></a> <p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">An eThekwinini DA councillor has expressed shock at seeing Schabir Shaik driving a luxury BMW in Durban's Musgrave area on Monday afternoon.<br /><br />"He looked perfectly healthy. I was really shocked," said Dean McPherson.<br /><br />"The department of correctional services needs to give us an explanation why Schabir Shaik was released from jail," he said.<br /><br />Shaik was released on medical parole on 3 March after serving two years and four months of a 15 year prison term for fraud and corruption.<br /><br />If Shaik were as gravely ill as was contended when he was released, he would not be driving around alone, said McPherson, adding that there was no way his health could have improved so quickly.<br /><br />"I was driving in the Musgrave area when I saw him coming out of a house in Essenwood road.<br /><br />"I decided to follow him. He pulled over to buy balloons on the side of the road," said McPherson, who proceeded to take a video of Shaik driving his car.<br /><br />"I am even willing to give eye-witness testimony in a court of law," he said.<br /><br />Shaik was convicted of two counts of corruption and one of fraud, relating to, among other things, his facilitation of a bribe, allegedly paid by French arms company Thint to President Jacob Zuma.<br /><br />The charges against Zuma and Thint were later dropped when it emerged that there was political interference in the investigation of the case.<br /><br />The Shaik family was not available for comment.</span> <p></p>

Shaik spotted driving BMW

Call for fresh Shaik probe An eThekwinini DA councillor has expressed shock at seeing Schabir Shaik driving a luxury BMW in Durban's ...

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SA Govt arming dictators

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:180%;"><a class="l" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20090802152836937C522032" onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','2','&sig2=-LVQ-IeaVZu2hCo4SzDjRw')">News - South Africa: SA selling arms to rogue states - DA</a></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A crisis in South Africa's arms control body has resulted in weapon deals being authorised to repressive regimes such as <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Iran, Libya, Zimbabwe and North Korea</span></strong>, the main opposition party said on Sunday.<br /><br />Democratic Alliance shadow minister of defence David Maynier said "several dodgy deals appear to have slipped through the cracks" as the arms control body failed to meet regularly and produce regular reports as required by law.<br /><br />Maynier said his investigation into the activities of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee showed deals had been authorised to sell weapons to some of the most repressive societies in the world.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365409429704201346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOsPr4QXbEdf_l6F8Z2Ll31Y2bPgx4hxpjdyZM12PY-PUw-h_zjfYfFBufVwq5yBu-bCYbGQW56CdkS3ogwiUP_EXn9wSDX5wgfZ2W70VZb2-02Mb25LFkmpX4MZnxrfsWfVPvlrBlh0/s400/north_korea_iran.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 217px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Many of these countries are under partial or full arms embargoes by the United Nations and European Union.</span></strong><br /><br />Government spokesperson Harold Maloka said they had not received the report and could not yet comment on it.<br /><br />According to Maynier, in the past 13 months deals have been given the green light to send multiple grenade launchers and glide bombs - long-range precision guided weapons - to <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Libya.</span></strong><br /><br />The delivery of multiple grenade launchers to <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Syria</span></strong> had also been approved, with a sale of sniper rifles pending.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365415797640598818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKHCxm_BHhH_CUBkQBfPzzwgl02MJCEZW2YrT3twVA5urxnBX0d83F_2OdSH_cz5eUhF1Zm3FXI9a2VymWpGstKGb7AcnA8l1NKl22FEQdlaVugvzi8mc8a_DG-Dk3RMDTwY0S_-jBUU/s400/Chavez_comu_nazi_red.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 260px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />The NCACC has also authorised the export of thousands of upgraded assault rifles to <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Venezuela</span></strong>, and there are fears these arms could find their way to Farc guerillas in Colombia.<br /><br />Ammunition for assault rifles and hand guns had been approved for neighbouring <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Zimbabwe</span></strong>.<br /><br />South Africa has come under fire for exporting arms on the continent, and was the subject of widespread condemnation last year for allowing Chinese arms and ammunition to be transported through South Africa to Zimbabwe in the midst of that country's political crisis.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365413653794528834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2t5aLRasmdtTCo6cq6yP_YYbnXTm_LE-BtF5mcSQ5AbbAY9HCd0-hMSICbgIhyUFhGt7GHXJpmTIpd1FfNss5zKz7pyGAOVCQfg3ERdrBHD90ZwL1SD5ED7hmYNHN0cBfWAhW9KJIwkM/s400/Castro_MugabeR1902_468x269.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 230px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />A researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Guy Lamb, said the NCACC act stated arms should not be sold to countries where they could contribute to internal repression or violate human rights.<br /><br />"None of those (countries) violate UN arms embargoes which South Africa has to adhere to, but there are certain problems with exporting to Zimbabwe for example and Venezuela, who are not the most reliable end users of that equipment".</span> <p><a class="headlines" href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=138308&sn=Detail"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">SA's dodgy arms sales to dictatorships - David Maynier</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">02 August 2009<br />The crisis in South Africa's arms control regime, and the implications... </span><a class="read_more" href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=138308&sn=Detail"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Read more</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> </span><p><a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090803030403506C321878"><span style="font-family:arial;">DA slams 'dodgy' arms deals</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20090802152836937C522032"><span style="font-family:arial;">SA selling arms to rogue states - DA</span></a><a href="http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=77439"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">DA claims watchdog approved ‘suspect’ arms deals</span></a> </p><p><br /></p>

SA Govt arming dictators

News - South Africa: SA selling arms to rogue states - DA A crisis in South Africa's arms control body has resulted in weapon deals bein...

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Zuma and the French connection

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">He's in the fast lane to the top in South Africa but there’s powerful evidence the man following the trail blazed by Mandela has been on the take.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">View</span></strong> </span><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/zuma_hi.asx"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">windows version</span> </a></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">YouTube link -</span></strong> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA9NVYW5nvQ" id="video-long-title-iA9NVYW5nvQ" rel="nofollow" title="Zuma - South Africa"><span style="font-size:130%;">Zuma - South Africa</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></span><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iA9NVYW5nvQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iA9NVYW5nvQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA9NVYW5nvQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA9NVYW5nvQ</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A decision by South African prosecutors to drop corruption charges against African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma has divided the country. Andrew Fowler from the ABC's investigative unit looks into the case:<br /><br />When you first hear about it, it's the size of the bribe that Jacob Zuma was charged with receiving that's most disturbing.<br /><br />How much does it take to get your own way with one of the nation's highest flyers, the man in waiting to be president? $20 million, $30 million, $50 million?<br /><br />In fact, according to the prosecution, the price of winning the favours of the man most likely to be the next president of South Africa, came in at just 500,000 rand per annum. That's about $100,000.<br /><br />It's a miserly amount, even taking into account the fact that Zuma was desperately short of cash.<br /><br />And, according to the case against him, what did Zuma offer up in exchange for this piddling amount? A $400 million contract for South Africa's new warships.<br /><br />But it is, of course, much worse than that.<br /><br />For while Zuma has been effectively found guilty of taking the bribe during a related court case, he will now never stand trial.<br /><br />The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) appears to have caved in to extraordinary pressure.<br /><br />Late last night Australian time, they dropped the charges of money laundering, corruption and fraud.<br /><br />Significantly though, the NPA said withdrawing the charges did not indicate that Zuma was innocent.<br /><br />Even so, the decision sent a powerful message to the people of South Africa: those at the top can get away with just about anything. The rule of law is now the rule of the political fix.<br /><br />For the people of South Africa, the implications of the Zuma decision raise painful possibilities.<br /><br />Many, both black and white, have an eye on the horror that is Zimbabwe just across the border, where the rule of law is as dead as the thousands who have been killed as a result of Robert Mugabe's policies.<br /><br />Foreign Correspondent spoke to Pelesa Morudu, a young woman who had been a loyal African National Congress (ANC) officer.<br /><br />She, like many others, was appalled at the prospect of Zuma leading the country.<br /><br />"After 15 years of democracy, after 15 years of liberation, the party that led us to independence, is this, how is it possible they can present someone who's a criminal suspect as a president for the republic?" she said.<br /><br />Courageous politician Patricia De Lille told the program called for the Zuma case to go to court.<br /><br />"Jacob Zuma must go and answer in court, because there's some evidence, some prima facie evidence that could nail Zuma," she said.<br /><br />Throughout our period in South Africa my colleague Wayne Harley and I were both heartened at the great strides the country had taken since the end of apartheid.<br /><br />Schools and hospitals had been built. There were new homes in place of many shanty towns. There was access to electricity and clean water.<br /><br />People complained to us that things hadn't changed quickly enough, but change they had.<br /><br />The biggest nagging problem which confronted us, and not just for our personal safety, involved the rate of violent crime. Every year nearly 20,000 South Africans are murdered.<br /><br />It is, of course, the police whose job it is to combat these crimes. It should be noted that the National Police commissioner Jackie Selebi received payments from underworld characters and was stood down last year.<br /><br />Under a Zuma regime it is now a distinct possibility that Selebi will get his old job back. They will make a formidable double act as two of the most powerful men in South Africa.<br /><br />No doubt Zuma and Selebi will also be able to share the delights of Paris together.<br /><br />It was there that Selebi spent the money hosting a dinner while lobbying to become the head of Interpol, a job he finally landed.<br /><br />It's also the city where the French arms manufacturer Thales is based. It was Thales which arranged for the money to be paid to Zuma, according to the case against him.<br /><br />If it hadn't been for Dr Richard Young, who runs an innovative defence software company in Cape Town, we may never have known the truth about Thales.<br /><br />Dr Young's company was the frontrunner to win a $400 million defence contract.<br /><br />The Zuma deal shut out Dr Young's company. He began investigating and asking questions.<br /><br />He didn't have to look far. Thales, it would seem, has form.<br /><br />In 1991, the company sold six La Fayette frigates to Taiwan. The deal contained a "sweetener" as the ships did not strictly meet Taiwan's requirements.<br /><br />In 2003 Taiwan's navy sued Thales to recover $590 million in kickbacks - money deposited in Swiss banks.<br /><br />Swiss authorities froze approximately $US730 million in over 60 accounts. In June 2007 the Swiss authority returned $34 million from those frozen accounts to Taiwan.<br /><br />Eight people involved in the Taiwan ships contract have died in unusual or suspicious circumstances. The Thales representative at the time, Andrew Wang, is wanted for the murder of a naval officer involved in the deal. Late last year he was still on the run.<br /><br />The man reportedly linked to the secret payments in Taiwan was Thales manager Alain Thetard.<br /><br />His next port of call after Taiwan, South Africa. It was Thetard who organised the payments to Zuma through a web of companies linked to Thales.<br /><br />An encrypted fax in our possession, written by Thetard, copied to the head of Thales International, Jean-Paul Perrier, reveals arrangements for Zuma to be paid R500,000 a year to protect Thales from any investigation into the ships deal.<br /><br />Zuma would also provide his permanent support for Thales' future projects.<br /><br />In the late 1990s, while Thetard was busy in South Africa, the Australian Government was busy selling off its prized defence asset, the Australian Defence Industries business - based at Sydney's Garden Island - to none other than Thales.<br /><br />Concerns expressed about the history of Thales in Taiwan, and the potential danger to Australian security, were brushed aside by the then Treasurer Peter Costello.<br /><br />While there is no evidence that Thales has operated corruptly in Australia, at least one of the executives who received the encrypted fax, Jean Paul Perrier, holds a senior position in Thales' Paris headquarters.<br /><br />Much of the evidence against Zuma stems from a court case involving his financial partner, Schabir Shaik.<br /><br />In Shaik's trial in 2005, Judge Hiliary Squires found that Zuma "agreed to receive R500,000 annually in exchange for protecting [Thales] against an investigation into the arms deal, and to advance the company's interests in South Africa".<br /><br />Shaik was found guilty of "facilitating Thales's bribery of Zuma". He was jailed for 15 years on charges of fraud and bribery relating to Zuma involving nearly $1 million between 1995 and 2005.<br /><br />Meanwhile two of the central characters in the case, Alain Thetard and Jean-Paul Perrier, are living life as usual in France.<br /><br />The French police who raided the Thales headquarters in Paris and the homes of Thetard and Perrier went cold on the case after then-South African president Tabo Mbeki visited the then-French president.<br /><br />For its part, Thales has told the ABC that it denies any wrongdoing.<br /><br />Thetard is still wanted in South Africa to answer perjury charges relating to the Zuma bribery case. Perrier recently took up an appointment as deputy chair of the company.<br /><br />Only Jacob Zuma and the supposedly uninvolved representatives of Thales in South Africa were left behind to face the music. And now it seems they too are off the hook. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><span style="color:#000099;">Links to Further information:</span> </em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>- </em></span><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/images/encrypted_fax.jpg"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>The Smoking Gun fax.</em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><em> This is a translation from French of the encrypted fax sent from south Africa to Thales (Thompson CSF) Headquarters in Paris.</em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>- Defence contractor Dr. Richard Young's </em></span><a href="http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za./"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>webpage </em></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>- </em></span><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/Shaik%20HC%20judgement.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Judgement </em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>handed down in 2005, sentencing Schabir Shaik to 15 years jail.</em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>- The 2008 </em></span><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/shaik_appeal.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Appeal </em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>against the Schabir Shaik judgement.</em></span> </p>

Zuma and the French connection

He's in the fast lane to the top in South Africa but there’s powerful evidence the man following the trail blazed by Mandela has been on...

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South Africa faces turmoil over Zuma

<p><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;">Fraud charges set to be dropped as poll chaos looms </span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;"><em>writes Fred Bridgland</em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"></span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">MULTIPLE CHARGES of corruption against Jacob Zuma, who is certain to be elected South Africa's new head of state in three weeks time, are to be dropped tomorrow following an emergency meeting of the state prosecuting agency.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318512575737613858" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMVSiDEZfsuMiXtWyTnkEfE5ZzbXUkjOL2KKCXwUqWkQg6EgbkxWZVlB8dOu0jpdPgjcT7-9dIlpWxI35aB8V3Nol8WY6dMmC9M1k22673IUNXXKS8bqYrq61Q_bXjmjjgsxwFx7kjnOU/s400/cope-zuma.bmp" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 283px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />The decision will plunge the country into political turmoil ahead of the April 22 general election - the fourth post-apartheid poll - with suggestions in all publications that Zuma has submitted evidence that former President Thabo Mbeki received bribes in connection with the country's contentious £5.5billion arms deal with West European weapons manufacturers.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWqGnGEb0h5uuxGIiQfaxoLgB5Kt3-3vcdxDQ_KpHT7NHAaHlST9sbV1KGP8UZDfyS6IZ8ky5i3AUa8sbuDy2JxpHYJjXgpersiJ1DfQaM2XVFtdfdZK5hdBhQf8CdVxo13ZmVTtUboqs/s1600-h/zumatello.bmp"></a>Zuma, 66, was due to go on trial in August on nearly 800 counts of corruption, fraud, racketeering, money laundering and tax evasion in connection with the arms deal, under which the country is being equipped with advanced warplanes, frigates, submarines and other equipment. British Aerospace, which is being investigated by the UK's fraud squad in connection with the deal, provided Hawk trainer jets and Gripen fighter-bombers, built in collaboration with Sweden's Saab.<br /><br />Helen Zille, leader of the country's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), will set a precedent that individuals in power are "above the law and can bully their way out of trouble".<br /><br />Karima Brown, political editor of Business Day, the country's leading upmarket daily, said tomorrow's NPA meeting will be tumultuous as the country's acting prosecution chief Mokotedi Mpshe shares with his staff "devastating" information presented by Zuma's lawyers which makes a prosecution "impossible".<br /><br />Investigators who have spent eight years gathering information on Zuma's alleged crimes feel deeply betrayed by the impending decision, said Ms Brown, quoting an NPA source.<br /><br />The reports said Zuma's lawyers had submitted tapes, presumed to be recorded by one of the competing branches of South Africa's intelligence services, showing a political conspiracy against Zuma was plotted by former president Mbeki.<br /><br />Mbeki was deposed as head of state last September as the result of an internal power struggle within the ruling African National Congress (ANC).<br /><br />Among a number of allegations said to be contained in the tapes </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="color:#000099;">according to the daily Johannesburg Star</span></em> </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=3268&fArticleId=vn20090329074848638C577975" title="NPA to drop Zuma charges"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">NPA to drop Zuma charges</span></em></a><em><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></em><a class="FeatureLinks" href="http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090327131019873C225737" title="'If we drop Zuma charges, NPA may reveal why'"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">'If we drop Zuma charges, NPA may reveal why'</span></em></a> </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">is a devastating conversation between Mbeki and the former head of the investigations unit of the NPA, Leonard McCarthy, who recently became head of the World Bank's anti-corruption unit on Mbeki's recommendation.<br /><br />The timing of the announcement of tomorrow's NPA decision will be crucial, given the impending election and the fact that it is likely to be the closest run since Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black head of state in 1994.<br /><br />Political commentators in several publications will have to give detailed reasons for dropping of charges against Zuma, who was said to have received hundreds of bribes connected to the arms deal from financier Schabir Shaik, who was imprisoned for 15 years in 2005 on corruption charges but paroled for "health" reasons last month.<br /><br />Zuma's battle with the state has dominated the political landscape in South Africa for several years. His victory will raise serious questions about the independence of the prosecuting authorities and other branches of the legal system.<br /><br />The looming controversy over the dropping of charges against Zuma comes as a debate rages over the ANC government's ban on the Dalai Lama attending a peace conference in Johannesburg last Friday designed to promote next year's World Cup Finals, being hosted by South Africa.<br /><br />The peace conference was cancelled after the Dalai Lama's fellow Nobel peace laureates Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former president FW de Klerk refused to attend after learning of the Tibetan spiritual leader's ban. The Dalai Lama was banned from attending after protests from Beijing and alleged payments by the Chinese government into the ANC's election coffers.<br /><br />Finance minister Trevor Manuel justified the ban, saying: "Who is the Dalai Lama? I've heard him described as a God and Buddha. To say anything against him is, in some quarters, equivalent to trying to shoot Bambi." Manuel is expected to be the country's next vice president.<br /><br />Archbishop Tutu, who was at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement, said the ANC government had "lost the plot" with the ban, adding that the world's press were "saying we are dirt." </span></p><p></p>

South Africa faces turmoil over Zuma

Fraud charges set to be dropped as poll chaos looms writes Fred Bridgland MULTIPLE CHARGES of corruption against Jacob Zuma, who is certain ...

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Shaik's R10m bid for Durban Mansion

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedMuqsgtIcwNiYQ7DW3LijcCIjKQM-0x46mpnSfv9VspiykV4TZnCfK1VkeyFLVuLbsdPlEnzHfSvS8MRcLLRetwQmVPMpD0kt7YVgh1bmjj-X1KhhWQTYCl0H_85PBZ3icVLKIZFL-U/s1600-h/shaik-golf.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312774664424681506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedMuqsgtIcwNiYQ7DW3LijcCIjKQM-0x46mpnSfv9VspiykV4TZnCfK1VkeyFLVuLbsdPlEnzHfSvS8MRcLLRetwQmVPMpD0kt7YVgh1bmjj-X1KhhWQTYCl0H_85PBZ3icVLKIZFL-U/s400/shaik-golf.bmp" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 214px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;">The Mail and Guardian today</span> <a href="http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-03-13-schabir-shaik-and-the-r10million-house">reports</a> <span style="color:#000000;">Shaik tried to buy a house just days before his controversial release from prison. </span></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Pam Golding Properties’ Durban manager Carol Reynolds confirms the former financial advisor to Jacob Zuma made a verbal offer for a R10 million mansion, on Eastbourne road in Durban, two weeks before his release from <strike>hospital</strike> jail.<br /><br />The winning bidder made a written offer of R9.8 million for the five-bedroom house.<br /><br />Reynolds says the owner of the house decided to go with the written offer because he felt Shaik’s offer was too risky and inconclusive.</span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;"><em>View this property on the Pam Golding Web Site:</em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;"><em>link <a href="http://www.pamgolding.co.za/property/property_result_listingref.asp?txtListingRef=442345">http://www.pamgolding.co.za/property/property_result_listingref.asp?txtListingRef=442345</a></em></span> <span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /><br />The palatial two-storey mansion is on the same road and a stone’s throw away from King’s House, the official Durban residence of the state president. It is likely to be African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s base after next month’s elections.<br /><br />The offer for the Eastbourne Road house, a few streets up from Shaik’s current home in Morningside, also raises questions about his financial capacity.<br /><br />In 2006 the asset forfeiture unit seized R34,4-million in assets from Shaik and his three Nkobi companies after they were deemed to be proceeds or benefits of his corrupt relationship with Zuma.<br /><br />In January this year the National Prosecuting Authority agreed to pay Shaik half the R14-million interest this had accrued over two years.<br /><br />He was paid R5-million in cash and another R2-million to cover his legal fees.<br /><br />Although the Asset Forfeiture Unit seized R34 million worth of his assets - the Nkobi Holding’s boss is not running short of cash - as one of his companies - Kobitech - has a one third state in Prodiba - the company that won a R650 million contract to produce drivers licenses in Mzansi.<br /></span><p></p>

Shaik's R10m bid for Durban Mansion

The Mail and Guardian today reports Shaik tried to buy a house just days before his controversial release from prison. Pam Golding Propert...

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South Africa frees convicted fraudster and Arms Deals conspirator in Zuma corruption scandal

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3du0Q19Y4fwMhdcWKDmf3IdVnynIQs3d2rDqDFmRUgdAbSC4-1qOpS6jx18bGCMiEw_pYwJvH6yFECC58DE62_SeJtft1eH11KasOQFxckW167sZMfSlq3I_S26SqfSzXNQVmYuh60o/s1600-h/shaik0303.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309143280186810178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3du0Q19Y4fwMhdcWKDmf3IdVnynIQs3d2rDqDFmRUgdAbSC4-1qOpS6jx18bGCMiEw_pYwJvH6yFECC58DE62_SeJtft1eH11KasOQFxckW167sZMfSlq3I_S26SqfSzXNQVmYuh60o/s320/shaik0303.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 223px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A businessman convicted in a corruption scandal involving presidential front-runner Jacob Zuma was granted parole on medical grounds Tuesday. Outraged opposition parties accused the ruling African National Congress of improper influence.<br /><br />Schabir Shaik, a close friend and former business adviser of Zuma's, was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years for bribery, fraud and corruption. The judge ruled that the businessman made payments of some 1.2 million rands ($120,000) to Zuma and tried to secure payments of 500,000 rands ($50,000 at current exchange rate) a year for the then-deputy president to deflect corruption investigations into a French arms company's deal with the government.<br /><br />Zuma is accused of complicity in Shaik's attempts to solicit bribes.<br /><br />Prisons Minister Ngconde Balfour said three doctors gave evidence to the parole board.<br /><br />"The three medical practitioners' collective submission shows a unanimous conclusion that Mr. Shaik is in <span style="color:#cc0000;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">'the final phase of his terminal condition'</span>,</strong></span><span style="color:#000000;">"</span> said Balfour in a statement.<br /><br />Patricia de Lille, who heads the small Independent Democrats party, said Shaik's parole was "disgusting" and the result of political interference from Zuma and the ANC.<br /><br />"What about the thousands of other prisoners that were never fairly assessed by the parole boards, even though some of them were in the final stages of terminal illness?" she said.<br /><br />The main opposition Democratic Alliance called on prison authorities to release full details of Shaik's medical condition.<br /><br />The South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights said some 2,500 inmates died in prison last year without being paroled.<br /><br />"It proves that if you are an ANC comrade anything is possible: even a get out of jail free card," said the Inkatha Freedom Party.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>Source: </em></span><a href="http://news.findlaw.com/"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>http://news.findlaw.com/</em></span></a> </p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#cc0000;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Submissions to the committee in September last year revealed that Shaik had cost the taxpayer R219 000 for his stay in hospital, but the bill could reach R3-million.</span></strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">The move was described as a "travesty of justice" by some people whose relatives had died of terminal illnesses while still in jail.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;">Trust director Derrick Mdluli said the parole board should have been balanced in its decision by also releasing other terminally ill prisoners.<br /><br />"Westville Prison has about 32 worse-off prisoners who've been sick for years and could die at any time," he said. "Why are they still in prison if it's that easy to get out because of high blood pressure and depression? This will open doors for us to push for their release. <strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Shaik wasn't even in his final stage of illness.</span></strong>"<br /><br />The trust would go to court if it was not taken seriously. "Shaik's the first person in this country to have spent his whole sentence outside prison. Other prisoners who've been sick for years will jump at this."<br /><br />The South African Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights president, Golden Miles Bhudu, said "There are about 2 500 inmates who died last year either because prison officials were negligent or did not make recommendations (for release)." </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;">One of the more well-known cases regarding medical parole was that of Simon Mazibuko. Mazibuko applied for medical parole on the basis that he had Aids-related cancer and was dying.<br /><br />He was refused parole. His lawyer Julian Knight successfully sued Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour in 2007.<br /><br />"The salient difference was that Simon Mazibuko was in a far worse condition as he had terminal cancer. Whereas <strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Schabir Shaik only has high blood pressure</span></strong>," said Knight.<br /><br />Knight was currently defending another client who had applied for medical parole. Jacob Kgatlane was currently imprisoned in C-Max in Pretoria. He had lymphatic cancer and was expected to die within a year.<br /><br />However, Knight said he was refused parole when the prison doctor disagreed with a private medical doctor on Kgatlane's condition.<br /><br />"I have no problem with giving Shaik medical parole, but let's be consistent," said Knight.<br /><br />"There are those with Aids who would surely qualify."<br /><br />Knight estimated that only between 10 and 20 prisoners received medical parole a year. </span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></p><p></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"><em><span style="color:#000099;">See also:</span> </em></span><a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090303120015173C844907"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"><em>Shaik is free - and R5m richer</em></span></a> </p><p><em><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;"></span></em><br /></p><p></p>

South Africa frees convicted fraudster and Arms Deals conspirator in Zuma corruption scandal

A businessman convicted in a corruption scandal involving presidential front-runner Jacob Zuma was granted parole on medical grounds Tuesday...

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Who got the Arms Deal Gold?

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwG751lzGNZK5qa18jtTXTB7eoWCXGv5bB7SqxJ6OSRrb51nN7ehat3yMHHaNEqJn-sGW_B8xkc6T53dtemwQDTqi8zzT4_JLb-jCti1tzMdeN0V73aFkM52NrnVKwelpwjnqXDFGQdc/s1600-h/ArmsGold_golden_handgrenade.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299060660271178818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwG751lzGNZK5qa18jtTXTB7eoWCXGv5bB7SqxJ6OSRrb51nN7ehat3yMHHaNEqJn-sGW_B8xkc6T53dtemwQDTqi8zzT4_JLb-jCti1tzMdeN0V73aFkM52NrnVKwelpwjnqXDFGQdc/s320/ArmsGold_golden_handgrenade.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 251px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">International auditing firm KPMG is in possession of a potentially explosive top secret list said to include the names of government ministers who allegedly stood to profit from a gold “offset” project linked to the arms deal.</span></strong><br /><br />Only a handful of people at KPMG and the Scorpions have seen The List. But it is said to have greatly excited the then national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. This has led to speculation that his interest in the matter provided ex-President Thabo Mbeki with additional motivation for suspending Pikoli in September last year – after which KPMG’s forensic investigation into the gold scam was terminated and a long-running probe by the Scorpions ground to a halt.<br /><br />The offset project which produced The List came about thanks to BAE Systems-Saab being awarded a $2.2bn tender to supply aircraft to the SAAF – they were required in return to pledge $8.7bn in investment and credits for export sales on “offset” projects that would uplift the previously disadvantaged and boost the country’s export sales.<br /><br />One of the projects that BAE Systems helped get off the ground was a small company called South African Royal Manufacturers. SA-registered SARM, as it was known, planned to provide hundreds of jobs for women in the depressed Free State town of Virginia by making gold rope necklace chains for export. BAE Systems provided a $5m loan to fund capital equipment and finance export sales; the Industrial Development Corporation put in R10m; and Harmony Gold, the world’s fifth biggest gold producer (chairman: Patrice Motsepe) provided premises and agreed to lend raw gold, and receive payment for it when the chains were sold.<br /><br />The project was the brainchild of two businessmen hailing from Miami, Florida – Luis Perez and Valentino Diaz. Perez, 59, originates from Peru; Diaz, 43, from Cuba.<br /><br />When the SARM factory was officially inaugurated in March 2003 it boasted the creation of 700 new jobs. By then it had been in operation since mid-2002 and managing director Perez announced it had already exported $3m in finished and semi-finished product to North America. Projected sales for 2003, the first full year of production, were estimated at $15m and the plan was to develop a business generating $100m in annual export sales within five years.<br /><br />Initially the chains were exported to Royal Chain Canada (whose vice president sales, according to a DTI press release, was none other than Valentino Diaz). But after a mysterious dispute involving $4.5m the SARM chains went to Miami, Florida, to a company called Mega Gold (president – the aforementioned Valentino Diaz).<br /><br />It didn’t last long. In June 2003, only three months after the triumphant inauguration, SARM’s auditors, Waterford Financial Management, issued a material irregularity warning to (sole) director Perez that the company was trading in insolvent circumstances. Sarm continued to trade until December 2004, when BAE Systems called in the liquidators, who discovered an initial shortfall of R98m.<br /><br />July 2004 had seen the arrival at Harmony Gold of a new financial director, Nomfundo Qangule, who very quickly became alarmed at the massive exposure the company had assumed in lending gold to SARM.<br /><br />Within months Qangule called in KPMG to do a forensic audit. But very soon the Scorpions took over and had KPMG reporting direct to them. In February 2005 Perez and Diaz, lured back from Miami by Harmony, were arrested on charges of fraud and contravention of the Companies Act. They were bailed for R500,000 each. When they were brought for trial in June 2006, Scorpions prosecutor advocate Elize le Roux declared that she was not ready to proceed with final charges. The defence objected and the case was removed from the court roll, leaving Perez and Diaz to return to Miami.<br /><br />And there the whole thing may quietly have died away, but for an odd tale recounted by a well-placed employee at KPMG. It went as follows: documents and information had been submitted to the firm stating that, once in Miami, the gold chains were melted down and sold as ingots. And that the beneficiaries of this scam were a number of shell CCs linked to prominent government ministers. Vusi Pikoli, so the story went, was determined to get to the bottom of this, but was suspended as director of national prosecutions before he could do so.<br /><br />At KPMG, the probe into SARM was conducted by forensic auditor Lynette van der Merwe. She reported to her director, Tasha Rossouw, whose boss in turn was the firm’s forensics supremo, Herman de Beer.<br /><br />Van der Merwe confirms that her investigation started in 2004. How did the list of ministers and the CCs come into the gold chain picture? “Well, I can’t really say anything to you,” replies Van der Merwe. “I’m in a very difficult situation; I can lose my job. It was supposed to be discreet [...]. It’s just we and the Scorpions that knows about the investigation.<br /><br />“We’re bound by the NPA Act not to speak to anyone. I don’t know who to trust. Harmony have got their own agenda. They would do anything to discredit us because they are cross with me.”<br /><br />Noseweek: “As I understand it, ministers were involved in these shell companies, the gold chains were exported and then melted down at the other end and the gold sold. That’s basically the story, isn’t it?” “Yes,” replies Van der Merwe. “You know a lot.”<br /><br />A top source at KPMG elaborates: “Everything you describe is factually correct on a high level, except to prove that last bit, where the monies ended up, or in backhanders. That had to be done offshore, and that part we never got to. The proof that the proceeds went to these high fliers, or the ministers, we didn’t get that far.<br /><br />“I’m not sure the Scorpions have the appetite for what it’s going to cost to really tie this case up. The cost of going to all these locations, get all those documents, prove the cashflows. I just got the impression that there was not an appetite to pursue this matter any further, based on the financial considerations. We’re not actively working on it at the moment.<br /><br />“There were constant stories about benefits that were going to flow to ministers, and all these CCs. [...] there’s a lot of names and a lot of CCs so-called linked to this deal. But where they fit in, that we could never crack.<br /><br />“SARM wasn’t administered the way it was supposed to be. The monies never came back. There were clear indications that people at Harmony didn’t do their work. Harmony lost millions – in my view they lost R200m over a period of time. Somebody stole the gold, that’s the bottom line. The question is: after they stole it what did they do with the money?”<br /><br />Was it Perez and Diaz doing the stealing? “I think that’s firm,” says our source. “However, who was going to be in with the deal? Who helped them to structure this deal? Who made the calls to the IDC and all the other places to be the funders of this thing? In retrospect the IDC should have asked significantly more questions. Did somebody speak to them so they didn’t ask questions and just put in the money? The IDC’s unresponsiveness when we wanted them to become a complainant was amazing. Why wouldn’t a public company that’s lost money – the venture was clearly fraudulent – want to pursue it?<br /><br />“So there were enough issues to say there’s a lot wrong here. But the factual determination, to get to the point where you say there were these entities and they were going to play a certain role and for that they got benefit, that has never been established purely because the case fizzled out.”<br /><br />On 6 August last year Bernard Swanepoel shocked the market when he resigned without explanation as Harmony’s chief executive. It was later stated that a new accountancy system had failed to capture R250m in costs in quarterly reports to March.<br /><br />Sixteen days later, on 22 August, Nomfundo Qangule resigned her position of financial director, again without explanation.<br /><br />NPA director Vusi Pikoli was suspended a month later.<br /><br />Swanepoel, 47, who now runs his own mining investment company To the Point, says that he “vaguely remembers” the Sarm debacle: “That’s the deal where we got shafted.”<br /><br />He still feels sore about the attitude of the Scorpions and KPMG. “Nomfundo [Qangule] brought in KPMG, then the Scorpions took over. In their normal flashy style they arrested two people [Perez and Diaz] but they hadn’t done enough homework and had to let them go. That was quite frustrating.”<br /><br />Swanepoel says he saw KPMG’s reports, but they did not mention The List and he had never heard of it. “I certainly wasn’t privy to that rumour or allegation. It’s always difficult when you deal with these cloak and dagger guys – they don’t tell you. They started investigating [Harmony] instead of the people who defrauded it.”<br /><br />Swanepoel says that his departure from Harmony, and that of Qangule, had nothing to do with the KPMG investigation.<br /><br />Qangule, 41, who joined Harmony just five months before SARM went into liquidation, says: “I was at the tail end of it, I actually killed it,” she says. “I just tried to establish exactly what happened.”<br /><br />She says she never heard about gold being melted down, or the existence of The List. “The problem is, I don’t think I’ll be at liberty to speak on behalf of Harmony, because I’m out now. It’s very difficult for me to comment.”<br /><br />According to share certificates held by liquidator Theo van den Heever, SARM’s capital was 1000 authorised shares, with just 100 issued – all to Luis Perez. This is odd, for back in March 2003 the DTI stated that SARM’s shares were held by Royal Chain Canada and US-based investors (60%) and the IDC with the remaining 40%.<br /><br />The IDC has, astonishingly, told Van den Heever that its records are in storage and it cannot recall what stake it held in SARM. However, if the latter is the correct version, could those mysterious CCs be lurking among those vaguely-described “US-based investors”?<br /><br />Vusi Pikoli did not respond to noseweek’s request for clarification over The List. But Scorpions investigator on the SARM case, adv Elize le Roux, claimed not to know about a list of CCs linked to prominent names. “I’m not aware of that,” she says.<br /><br />So it wasn’t included in the material you received from KPMG? “I cannot comment on that. But in any way that’s not the focus of our investigation.”<br /><br />Noseweek asks again: Are you aware of such a list? “No comment on that at this stage.”<br /><br />Le Roux insists the case against Perez and Diaz has not been closed. “Of course we are in a period of transition. What KPMG is, I think, trying to convey to you is that from their side the case has been shelved because we are still awaiting certain information and we haven’t given them any task to do at this stage. That doesn’t mean the case has been closed.”<br /><br />At D&T Trust, liquidator Theo van den Heever says he’s planning to launch a reckless and negligent trading claim against Perez and Diaz. The loss at present, he says, is around R115m – R70m due to Harmony Gold; R35m to BAE Systems and R10m to the IDC. Harmony’s total exposure was R120m but they recovered R50m worth of gold, leaving a shortfall of R70m.<br /><br />The liquidator’s take on the scam? “Perez and Diaz (SARM) sold the gold chain to themselves (Mega Gold in Miami). When the music stopped there was a R25m hole in chain supplied by Sarm to Mega Gold, which was never paid for.<br /><br />“SARM always sold to Mega Gold at a loss, so they were getting gold out of the country at 80% of its value. The Scorpions came and got documents from us, but we never got any definitive feedback from them. What they did confirm was what our investigations revealed – the gold was always sold at a loss.”<br /><br />Van den Heever says he never heard about The List. He had heard, though, about the gold chains being melted down in Miami. “Apparently Diaz was having an affair with one of the SARM staff members. He told her in the last days, just before they closed down.” </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#990000;"><em>See Also:-</em></span><br /><strong><em><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#cc0000;"></span></em></strong><br /><a class="articleheadline" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20090204131942278C229877"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Author urges new probe into arms deal</em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><em> <span style="color:#000099;">- February 04 2009</span></em></span></p><p><a class="headlines" href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=116601&sn=Detail"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Why we need a judicial inquiry into the arms deal - Paul Holden</em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><em> <span style="color:#000099;">- 04 February 2009</span></em></span> </p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><em></em></span><a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20081011083924513C594072"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Holden targets arms deal</em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><em> </em></span><br /></p><em><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></em><p></p>

Who got the Arms Deal Gold?

International auditing firm KPMG is in possession of a potentially explosive top secret list said to include the names of government ministe...

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Convicted fraudster and Arms Deals conspirator Schabir Shaik gets R5m from state in “secret” deal

<P><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kcW3RNry5JBhM38yqTSaL0VkykoPrTnGKsJcndMtDvv-QXh5nIe1wXsjYsHdfN3uGRmvR-RSLpmyFfPDAqdBoOZ13qSfPTgEcncvhjQIgr-VzYPmbSapFXNaxaPpChyBy7ccVGtyNKM/s1600-h/NPA-SA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294245084094048546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kcW3RNry5JBhM38yqTSaL0VkykoPrTnGKsJcndMtDvv-QXh5nIe1wXsjYsHdfN3uGRmvR-RSLpmyFfPDAqdBoOZ13qSfPTgEcncvhjQIgr-VzYPmbSapFXNaxaPpChyBy7ccVGtyNKM/s400/NPA-SA.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Schabir Shaik has received a R5-million windfall from the state in terms of a "secret" agreement signed late in 2008 between his lawyer and the government.<br /><br />In what is believed to be an unprecedented move, the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) has agreed to split the interest on Shaik's ill-gotten gains.</span></strong><br /><br />Shaik is serving a 15-year sentence for his corrupt relationship with Jacob Zuma.<br /><br />The Star has also established that Zuma's ex-financial adviser has not given up his fight to get back the R34-million confiscated from him and his Nkobi group of companies.<br /><br />It emerged in papers filed with the Durban High Court this week that Shaik has applied to President Kgalema Motlanthe for the "reprieve and remission of the confiscated amounts".<br /><br />A decision on this is still pending, it is stated.<br /><br />The Durban court papers reveal a settlement agreement signed by Shaik's lawyer, Reeves Parsee, and the NDPP, which settles a dispute over who is entitled to the interest on the seized R34-million that accrued while Shaik launched various court challenges to the confiscation order.<br /><br />With about R14-million interest at stake, the row was headed to court.<br /><br />But late in 2008, in terms of a negotiated settlement, made an order of court, the parties agreed to split the interest, giving Shaik R5-million in cash.<br /><br />This was after the state deducted about R2-million that Shaik had been advanced to pay for his two unsuccessful legal bids to overturn the asset forfeiture order.<br /><br />While the agreement was not stamped "confidential", one of its terms was that it was to be kept secret, with "no public announcements" without the prior written approval of the other party.<br /><br />However, the agreement was attached to a report recently submitted to the court by Trevor White, the curator tasked by the court to administer and oversee the forfeiture to the state of about R34-million that Judge Hilary Squires found to be the profit from his corrupt relationship with Zuma.<br /><br />The money has been gaining interest since January 2006 while Shaik unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the forfeiture order in both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.<br /><br />In terms of the deal struck with the NDPP, Shaik agreed to pay the money back if his court attempts were unsuccessful.<br /><br />In return for the cash to pay for lawyers, Shaik put up his CellSaf shares as security.<br /><br />According to White's report, these shares have been given back to him, and the legal fees have been deducted from his half of the R14-million interest, leaving him with R5-million, which was paid into his attorney's account last month.<br /><br />White said this left R41-million in the account, which would be paid into the criminal asset recovery account once his fees and costs had been approved and deducted.<br /><br />The attached settlement agreement notes, however, that in the event of Shaik's application to the president succeeding entirely or partially, he reserved his right to reclaim the entire amount.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#000099;"><em>DA poses tough questions</em></span></strong><br /><br />The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply concerned by newspaper reports indicating that a secret deal has been concluded to pay a sum of R5 million to convicted fraudster and Arms Deals conspirator Schabir Shaik. The DA believes that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) needs to make it expressly clear why such a deal was concluded, how it serves the interests of justice, why it was conducted in secrecy, and upon what basis the NPA decided to conclude a negotiated settlement rather than allow the matter to be determined in court.<br /><br />We believe that the agreement, if these reports are accurate, is outrageous and makes a mockery out of our justice system. It seems patently obvious that if an initial sum is forfeited, then any subsequent earnings on that amount ought to be forfeited too.<br /><br />It is worth bearing in mind, too, that the sum of money in question is interest accrued on transactions right at the heart of the Arms Deal controversy. The initial figure of approximately R34.5 million reportedly included:<br /><br />* The R250 000 bribe paid by Thales into Shaik’s Kobitech account, disguised as a so-called “service provider agreement”, but ostensibly intended for Jacob Zuma.<br />* R21 million shares in African Defence Systems (ADS) - the company that won the tender to supply Arms Deal corvettes with information management systems.<br />* ADS dividends valued at R12.7m.<br />* R500 000 received by Nkobi Investments for the sale of its shares in Thint Holdings to Thales.<br /><br />It is utterly unacceptable that Shaik should now be allowed to profit from allegedly corrupt transactions. The DA will pose parliamentary questions to the Minister of Justice on this matter at the first available opportunity. </span><p>

Convicted fraudster and Arms Deals conspirator Schabir Shaik gets R5m from state in “secret” deal

Schabir Shaik has received a R5-million windfall from the state in terms of a "secret" agreement signed late in 2008 between his l...

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ANC 'majority will be slashed' and allow for investigations into arms deal & Travelgate

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZ6M2MKyMg-d8pAJJ9RtrxQ3B2TNJI92X1NKoHTYTjv5aZzFZFNq9andnfHEmyxjmD4cJZ1J46skpW1XfCfYmLF6ZMfdb_PorvJ6Ch3dUPuXAjb733ArrQ11682ffruQlkQ32ld6lH_Q/s1600-h/zuma6.jpg"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263067891060642642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZ6M2MKyMg-d8pAJJ9RtrxQ3B2TNJI92X1NKoHTYTjv5aZzFZFNq9andnfHEmyxjmD4cJZ1J46skpW1XfCfYmLF6ZMfdb_PorvJ6Ch3dUPuXAjb733ArrQ11682ffruQlkQ32ld6lH_Q/s400/zuma6.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 203px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 250px" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">While the ANC might win the elections next year, United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa is adamant that the party will no longer have a two-thirds majority in parliament.<br /><br />He was addressing a lively audience at the TUT/Pretoria News Public Lecture Series at the university's Pretoria campus on Tuesday night.<br /><br />According to Holomisa, the loss of the two-thirds majority will allow for the opening of investigations into the controversial arms deal and Travelgate, as the ANC has used its majority to block inquiries into the two issues.<br /><br />Holomisa described this as a healthy situation for the country's democracy. He said the rebellion that has occurred within the ruling party had not only divided the ANC, but had divided the country as well.<br /><br />"If they think Terror (Lekota) would be targeting only within the 600 000 card-holding ANC members, they are (fooling) themselves.<br /><br />"There are about 18 million voters out there and many of them are not happy with what has been happening," said Holomisa.<br /><br />He did not rule out forming a coalition with the breakaway movement led by the Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa.<br /><br />"Whether we will go into a coalition with them will of course depend on how well they perform in the elections.<br /><br />"We have formed coalitions before, even with the ANC in Kwazulu-Natal because they were struggling to form a provincial government," said Holomisa.<br /><br />He attributed the current political crisis within the ANC to the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal that has seen ANC president Jacob Zuma fighting corruption charges.<br />"Is it not ironic that both Zuma and former president Thabo Mbeki never got to finish their terms in office because of issues related to the arms deal?<br /><br />"It was controversial from the start because the White Paper by the parliament's defence review had made it clear that there was no immediate necessity to channel resources into arms. Instead it recommended that these resources be channelled towards the RDP," said Holomisa.<br /><br />Holomisa said the ruling party had justified the arms deal by saying it would create 65 000 permanent jobs and generate at least R4-billion in offsets and counter-trade.<br /><br />In reality, the cost of the deal had skyrocketed from an initial R29-billion to over R60-billion and costs were still mounting.<br /><br />"If this was the way of creating employment, why were poorer countries not just striking arms deals to create employment for their people?" he asked.<br /><br />Holomisa castigated ANC leaders like treasurer Mathews Phosa for making reckless statements about the country's economy.<br /><br />"He is not even in government but he was already assuring banks that they would be bailed out by the government if the current global economic crisis started to take its toll on South African banks," said Holomisa.<br /><br />Asked whether Zuma would be suitable as head of state, Holomisa said he could do well if he surrounded himself with better advisers than the ones he currently had.<br /><br />Holomisa asked why the ANC wanted a political solution to Zuma's legal woes while they maintained his innocence.<br /><br />"He even travelled to Mauritius to stop the use of evidence from documents against him, including a diary that does not even belong to him," he said. </span><p>

ANC 'majority will be slashed' and allow for investigations into arms deal & Travelgate

While the ANC might win the elections next year, United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa is adamant that the party will no lo...

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Terror left the army in tatters

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLTq3HoR3X6odBVyGpz7L2umGMYF8PDdEdyEWcvHIlS_lsMiMA2Jp5IIuTEJ2EhpmfwkP6-G47UqMLxW4qSk5Ek0Pm-OGDZsfhTskchQzbOleGh_CpfKjIMXaYzY-Bv5rXk9LPnN9Tsg/s1600-h/lekota-lynx.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261555067064280770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLTq3HoR3X6odBVyGpz7L2umGMYF8PDdEdyEWcvHIlS_lsMiMA2Jp5IIuTEJ2EhpmfwkP6-G47UqMLxW4qSk5Ek0Pm-OGDZsfhTskchQzbOleGh_CpfKjIMXaYzY-Bv5rXk9LPnN9Tsg/s400/lekota-lynx.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 266px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">You have no doubt been following the exciting travails of Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick "Monsieur Terror" Lekota, the former minister of defence and apparently joint leader of the Shikota group of ANC splinteratchiks.<br /><br />"Shikota" is a neologism obtained by conjoining and compressing (what a thought) the surname of Mbhazima "Sam the Sham" Shilowa - the former premier of Gauteng and devotee of the Zion Christian Church (but no wine farm, mind you; no wine farm and no cigars) - and that of Lekota.<br /><br />Has the end of the world come? we ask ourselves. Has one cubicle, in the broad church that has been the ANC for so long, imploded? Will coffee ever taste the same? Can Lekota cure my dandruff? Will the price of pipe tobacco decline?<br /><br />Will archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu ever get over his "pain" - try some aspirin, arch - and find it in his heart to vote again? Will Nelson R Mandela vomit on his ANC badge?<br /><br />Actually, I am very relieved that the end of the world never came, and that there was not even a small attempt at Armageddon - because what I find most remarkable is that this 60-year-old tubby fellow, who bears a striking resemblance to Jabba the Hutt, of Star Wars (the movie) fame, has had his podgy finger on the trigger of our national arsenal (such as it is) for almost 10 years. And we make fun of the Americans!<br /><br />I concede that it's probable that none of our stuff works - that our submarines are in dry dock, that we have no pilots for our Gripens, that Schabir Shaik probably stuck a spanner in the combat suites of the corvettes, that most of our armoured cars are deployed in townships to save the bacon of Shikota fellow-travellers, that the HIV infection rate of our army is probably about 67 percent, and that we have, in any case, sold the sea just outside Simonstown - but still.<br /><br />Mr Mbeki, what were you thinking, sir? How could you have left this incoherent big-mouth in charge of our army? What would have happened if there had been a serious, armed insurrection by the boere in Randburg? What would have happened if we had been forced to drop brave members of 1 Para on Harare? Do their parachutes still work?<br /><br />This Lekota fellow is remarkable. Outraged at having effectively had his bum removed from the butter and his nose from the trough - what a mixed metaphor; soon I'm going to be offered a job as a political analyst - he has stumped around the country saying plenty of nothing in the most self-righteous and outraged tones.<br /><br />He has told us that the head honchos of the ANC are not democrats; that they have trampled on everyone's rights (especially his); he has launched into endless diatribes about T-shirts and whose picture should be on them (Geez, if I have to hear another one of these bozos arguing about T-shirts, I am going to platz); and he has rabbited on about the Freedom Charter ad nauseam.<br /><br />On Saturday, I saw a clip of Lekota speaking at a mass meeting of about 23 people in some select suburb - no way was he going to venture back to a place like Orange Farm.<br /><br />Orange Farm is not for fat boys who have been living high on the hog in Pretoria.<br /><br />He asked his select audience audaciously: "Why doesn't Jacob Zuma tell us the truth about the arms deal?"<br /><br />Monsieur Mosiuoa - you have been the defence minister for nine- and-a-bit years, my china, why don't you tell us about the arms deal? Don't be shy; if you need to know anything, I can put you in touch with Patricia de Lille, of the Independent Democrats, who has made the arms deal her meal ticket.<br /><br />She's what you call a one-trick, as opposed to a one-prick, pony.<br /><br />Talking of which, why doesn't Shikota form a coalition with the ID? And why don't Terror and the Big Dudes give some thought to attracting some serious "names" to their party?<br /></span></p>

Terror left the army in tatters

You have no doubt been following the exciting travails of Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick "Monsieur Terror" Lekota, the former minister of ...

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Has South Africa's ANC Lost Its Soul?

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1XCglERxefTgVCnRqHIGM2mtOPeHs-7B4VRWlTCJXXtbGThQPOn7DlLH7WvZBRBVyoCSpU9u_xQlk3wi88ljgz0LgaOW8KXscs01grLp8d_iW_rJQOTmvNVZ3kEh3gQ0RNoUruovbRg/s1600-h/zuma-ANC.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242270202591826962" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1XCglERxefTgVCnRqHIGM2mtOPeHs-7B4VRWlTCJXXtbGThQPOn7DlLH7WvZBRBVyoCSpU9u_xQlk3wi88ljgz0LgaOW8KXscs01grLp8d_iW_rJQOTmvNVZ3kEh3gQ0RNoUruovbRg/s400/zuma-ANC.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Fourteen years after the African National Congress came to power, party infighting over the pending corruption trial of the party's leader, Jacob Zuma, leads veteran editor and commentator Allister Sparks to ask: has a liberation movement which used to have a sense of mission and idealism now degenerated into an instrument to carry individuals to privilege and prosperity? </span></strong></span><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?rid=17473664&cat=371b1b8643d479c1" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#000099;">Signs of desperation in the Zuma camp</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />THE African National Congress (ANC) Youth League's attack on the party's deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, tells us two things. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">First, the ANC is more seriously divided than anyone imagined even after the Polokwane punch-up.<br /><br />Second, the Jacob Zuma camp is working itself into a reckless frenzy as it realises its man's legal position is becoming more fragile.<br /><br />The attack on Motlanthe was astonishing not only for its presumptuousness, with a bunch of youngsters having the gall to denounce the second most senior figure in the party for trying to discipline them, but also because they are all supposedly in the same Zuma camp.<br /><br />It was the pro-Zuma crowd, with the Youth League prominent, who chose Motlanthe as the ANC's alternative candidate for the national presidency should Zuma fail to survive his corruption case. Now the youths are vilifying him, in typically venomous language, for saying they should stop attacking the judiciary and other important democratic institutions.<br /><br />So much for the vaunted loyalty and discipline of ANC members. So much, too, for the myth that the ANC is still a united organisation. Not only did it split in two at Polokwane, but in the eight months since it has been writhing in a power struggle at provincial and regional levels that has driven hundreds of Thabo Mbeki supporters from office and out of contention for places on the electoral lists.<br /><br />Now we have this new evidence that the Zuma camp itself is split -- at the highest level. This bespeaks a party in trouble.<br /><br />The Youth League attack does not in fact come out of the blue. There have been rumours for weeks of growing tensions between Motlanthe and the Zuma camp. As Zuma's legal problems mount and his prospects of being able to dodge his day in court diminish, Motlanthe begins to loom larger as a rival.<br /><br />So he must now be "eliminated" by those who proclaim their readiness to "kill for Zuma".<br /><br />Which prompts the question of what has happened to the ANC that it has allowed itself to degenerate in this way? Is it not perhaps the same as has happened to many other liberation movements around the continent once their founding objective, that of liberation, was achieved? That there is a loss of that sense of mission and idealism that once bound its disparate members together in comradeship, and all that is left now is the vehicle that got them there -- a vehicle to be seized and controlled to carry individuals to power, privilege and prosperity?<br /><br />If so, it means not only that the ANC is disintegrating but that it has lost its soul.<br /><br />This self-destructive behaviour may intensify if Zuma's position weakens further. Last month's Constitutional Court judgment came as a great blow to the Zuma camp, for it marked the end of the road for his long legal campaign to prevent a mass of potentially damning documentary evidence in the hands of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) being admissible in court.<br /><br />Now only one legal avenue remains, and that is to try to stop the case altogether. Two attempts are pending. One was a high court application made last month to have the decision to prosecute declared unlawful. The other is an application for a permanent stay of prosecution to be made on November 25.<br /><br />In line with the defence team's own description of its approach as a "Stalingrad strategy" -- meaning it will fight a rearguard action street by street every inch of the way to stop the case -- it is clear that even if Zuma should lose these applications he would try to start a new round of appeals, so delaying the trial until after next year's election. By which time Zuma would be president of the republic and the ANC could enact a law indemnifying a sitting president from being prosecuted.<br /><br />But there's a snag. In last month's Constitutional Court judgment, Chief Justice Pius Langa noted that while he regarded the right of appeal as important, courts should not allow it to be misused to delay trials. He laid down an injunction that "all courts should discourage pretrial litigation ... that seeks to delay the commencement of trials".<br /><br />That has increased the sense of alarm in the Zuma camp, which is why it is now switching its attention to what it calls "a political solution".<br /><br />This is gaining public attention, for it sounds like an easy way out of an embarrassing problem. But it is a misnomer. It is not a solution, for there is no "legally and constitutionally tenable way", as some suggest, to drop a criminal charge against a major public figure.<br /><br />Any attempt would amount to a political deal that would violate the rule of law, which is the central pillar of our constitution and of any democratic system.<br /><br />A special commission, modelled on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which would exchange truth-telling for amnesty on the arms deal, has been mooted. But that would avail Zuma little, for the arms deal constitutes only a small fraction of the 16 charges he is facing, which involve 400 separate payments totaling R4,2m over 10 years from 1995 to 2005.<br /><br />Even a special law indemnifying a president from prosecution would be challengeable in the Constitutional Court on the grounds that it violated our Bill of Rights principle that "all are equal before the law".<br /><br />It has been suggested that the country's prosecutorial guidelines may offer a way out, since they state that a prosecutor's duty is to prosecute a case -- unless "public interest demands otherwise".<br /><br />But there is a huge difference between the "public interest" and "public opinion" -- especially public opinion confined to a particular political party.<br /><br />Some in the Zuma camp are suggesting that prosecuting Zuma would be against the public interest because it might provoke unrest. But it is they who are threatening to create the unrest. It would be a most cynical violation of the rule of law to use such a self-generated threat as a pretext for dropping a criminal charge against a would-be president whose character should be exposed to the closest possible public scrutiny.<br /><br />Those tempted by this seemingly quick-fix idea should think carefully. With the disbanding of the Scorpions, the huge pressure on the NPA and the orchestrated campaign to intimidate the judiciary, who in SA will ever again attempt to prosecute a prominent public figure? Corruption, already rife, will become rampant.<br /><br />That is the road to destruction. My worst case scenario.<br /><br />My best case scenario would be for Zuma to step aside from the presidential race and have his day in court, leaving Motlanthe, in accordance with the Polokwane decision, to take over and lead the ANC and the country.<br /><br />Or if Zuma doesn't really want that day in court, if he fears that the case against him is too forbidding, let him seek a plea bargain. He might then end up with a suspended sentence instead of the 15 years which is the statutory minimum sentence for the charges he faces. That would prevent him from becoming president of SA, but he could, the party willing, still be president of the ANC.<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Sparks is a former editor of the Rand Daily Mail and a veteran political analyst.<br /></span></em></span><p></p>

Has South Africa's ANC Lost Its Soul?

Fourteen years after the African National Congress came to power, party infighting over the pending corruption trial of the party's lead...

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Govt 'blocks arms deal queries'

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3LCtvngZEYK-ie51KHNmxQGw_VS9WP-x5w8QC0hj8F-a1Um8_S0cupDMtJ_7akyTI08DzFHZQkOqLOmWOsLVmKWPaA3QgymmFiyypcN164PQRh_8n7VUoh5n88r0TeNE_wJOlrVU0EnA/s1600-h/mbeki-arms-deal.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238209899112297170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3LCtvngZEYK-ie51KHNmxQGw_VS9WP-x5w8QC0hj8F-a1Um8_S0cupDMtJ_7akyTI08DzFHZQkOqLOmWOsLVmKWPaA3QgymmFiyypcN164PQRh_8n7VUoh5n88r0TeNE_wJOlrVU0EnA/s400/mbeki-arms-deal.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Johannesburg - Attempts by the government to obstruct the Democratic Alliance's enquiries into South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal have continued, the party's arms deal spokesperson Eddie Trent said on Sunday.<br /><br />Trent said the DA had received a response from Justice Director-General Menzi Simelane stating that the department would not give the DA access to the German and British Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreements with South Africa.<br /><br />The MLAs set out the details of South Africa's co-operation with Britain and Germany in respect of their investigations into allegations of corruption connected with the arms deal.<br /><br />"We believe that the German investigation ceased because of a lack of co-operation from South Africa, and we suspect that the British investigation may likewise also be ended due to a singular lack of assistance from the government," Trent said.<br /><br />Releasing info<br /><br />"If this is untrue, we challenge the Minister of Justice to refute this allegation by providing the public with substantive evidence that South Africa is co-operating fully with the British authorities.<br /><br />"By accessing the MLAs, we would be able to hold government to account in terms of whether it assisted the German and British investigations.<br /><br />"It is essential that our government co-operates fully with the investigations and ensures that any South Africans who benefited unlawfully from the billions of rands spent on the arms deal are publicly held to account."<br /><br />The reason for the refusal that Simelane gave was as follows: "Disclosure of the copy of the request as well as other documents which accompanied the said request will in my view, prejudice the good international relationship that the Republic of South Africa has with the United Kingdom...<br /><br />"I therefore refuse you access to the requested records... "<br /><br />Said Trent: "Government has repeatedly stated that there were no irregularities in respect of the arms deal - yet they continue to obstruct and prevent access to relevant documents.<br /><br />"If there are no irregularities, then government should have no reason to prevent those documents from being scrutinised and no reason to believe that the disclosure of any information in these documents would prejudice its reputation.<br /><br />"We challenge government either to release the documents that they have refused access to, or to admit that they are concealing information." </span><p></p>

Govt 'blocks arms deal queries'

Johannesburg - Attempts by the government to obstruct the Democratic Alliance's enquiries into South Africa's multi-billion rand arm...

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