Taljaard quizzed on enrichment claims

07 August 2014 - 20:31 By Sapa
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Former DA MP and author Raenette Taljaard was requested at the Seriti Commission of Inquiry on Thursday to identify the individuals who benefited financially from the 1999 arms deal.

The inquiry's evidence leader Matshego Ramagaga questioned Taljaard on several excerpts from her 2012 book "Up in Arms: Pursuing Accountability for the Arms Deal in Parliament".

"You say [in the book] the defence procurement package signed by government would make some individuals incredibly wealthy and push our new democratic institutions to brink of cardiac arrest," Ramagaga read.

"Out of that passage, can you indicate to this commission as to which individuals would have become incredibly wealthy as a result of the purchase?"

Taljaard responded: "I will have a difficulty in naming specific names of individuals who became incredibly wealthy. One element of concrete evidence is the possible role of the Airborne Trust and Red Diamond Trading.

"I have placed that before the commission. I want to put that on the agenda as possible conduits for wealth. Beyond that, I have no personal knowledge of the specific individuals."

She said the existence of the two warranted an investigation by the inquiry.

Chairman of the inquiry, Judge Willie Seriti, asked Taljaard to explain if she knew whether the trusts had received money legitimately.

Taljaard said the wrongfulness of the funds paid into the trusts was not for her to determine.

"I simply know that they received money. The wrongfulness thereof or not is for the commission to decide. I know that wealth was channelled through two trusts," she said.

"Whether that wealth is of a legitimate or illegitimate nature is something beyond my scope. I do not have the forensic, investigative capabilities as an individual to establish that beyond reasonable doubt."

Ramagaga asked Taljaard to explain which institutions would be pushed to the brink of cardiac arrest by the arms deal purchases.

The former parliamentarian said she believed numerous state institutions, formed under the 1996 Constitution and which were relatively new at the time, would be put under severe pressure with the investigations.

President Jacob Zuma announced the establishment of the commission in October 2011 to probe allegations of corruption in the arms procurement deal.

Government acquired, among other hardware, 26 Gripen fighter aircraft and 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainer aircraft for the air force, and frigates and submarines for the navy.

The next witness, Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier, is set to testify next week.

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