Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

South African Govt Investigates Itself Over BAE Bribes and Finds Nothing Wrong

reader | 21.11.2007 00:34 | Anti-militarism | World

!

 http://www.mg. co.za/articlepag e.aspx?area= /breaking_ news/breaking_ news__national/&articleid=325478



Govt says arms deal clean, and that's that



Johannesburg, South Africa







20 November 2007 12:03



President Thabo Mbeki's office said an investigation into the arms deal had already found no wrongdoing on the part of government, in its response to a media report that speculation over Mbeki's involvement in the deal was "hotting up".



"Government has conducted an investigation on this matter and that investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of government. That's all I am going to say," said presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga.



This followed a report in the Citizen, based on an addendum to Mbeki's online letter in his capacity as president of the African National Congress on November 16.



In the letter, 15 "challenges" were posed to journalist Chris McGreal, who authored a piece for the Guardian on claims made by former MP Andrew Feinstein in his book After the Party.



According to a copy of the article on the Guardian Unlimited website, Feinstein claimed that Mbeki was involved in the ANC leadership's blocking of a parliamentary investigation into alleged bribery by BAE Systems and other weapons firms in a massive arms deal. He also said that a deal for fighter jets was sealed after an informal chat -- and there were no bids on the table.



In the online letter, titled "What the Media Says: Lies Damn Lies", McGreal is repeatedly asked to substantiate claims in the article, published on November 13, and is promised "right of reply" on the website.



"Challenge # 9" refers to Feinstein's claim that politicians decided in favour of British planes at an 'informal meeting' attended by Mbeki, [the late former Minister of Defence, Joe] Modise and at least one official since implicated in corruption in the deal. The BAE bid was then presented to the Cabinet for approval without any other bids on the table".



The ANC retorted, "The entirety of the assertions made in this passage is nothing more than a conglomeration of blatant lies. We challenge McGreal to ask his informant, Andrew Feinstein, to assist him by providing him with the single facts to substantiate the claims that McGreal chose to report approvingly."



Although the ANC had challenged the story, the Presidency would not pursue it.



After the party Feinstein, the former ANC leader of Parliament's public accounts watchdog Scopa, resigned when the party moved to curtail investigations into the arms deal. He is now living in London .



Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille De Lille alleged in Parliament earlier in November that she had evidence of three payments by warship supplier Thyssen-Krupp on January 29 1999, each of R500 000, to the ANC, to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and to the Community Development Foundation, a Mozambique charity associated with Mandela's wife, Graça Machel.



The payments were allegedly made into foreign accounts with Credit Suisse First Boston.



The three entities have denied any knowledge of the payments, while Thyssen has declined to comment. - Sapa

reader

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

comment

21.11.2007 08:24

well probably like the other leaders of african countries their all corrupt but seeing as their black we shouldnt say anything coz its racist

better to have them transfer the money the west gives them to swiss bank accounts than to spend it on their own starving people

still, we can always blame our governments for not doing enough to help the poor of africa

oh yes


idiot

21.11.2007 15:46

we take out more money in debt repayments than we put in through loans....especially now the IMF and World Bank are going bankrupt thaks to countries refusing to take their 'loans'. do some reading, and take that swastika armband off, it looks silly...

trollhunter


Cunthunter

21.11.2007 20:07

Trollhunter, you shouldn't make idle comparisons with the Nazis.

I see you standing on a soapbox at Speakers' Corner, calling anyone who disagrees with you a Nazi.

Edward


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech