But the government was showered with praise yesterday from across the political spectrum when it announced that it will not buy the A400M aircraft because the "cost escalation would have placed an unaffordable burden" on the taxpayer.
Announcing the Cabinet's decision yesterday, government spokesman Themba Maseko said the "interests of the taxpayer will be best served by not proceeding" with the deal.
He said the decision had been taken two weeks ago, but its implementation was deferred to allow Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to consult others involved and to learn more about its implications.
"We also had to make sure that we communicate with the relevant parties, especially Airbus itself, because you can't enter into a contract with somebody and get them to hear about a decision to pull out through the media and that is why we delayed it," he said.
But Airbus spokesman Linden Birns said the company was "surprised" to learn of the decision from the media yesterday. He said Airbus was even more surprised that the government "moved immediately to cancel" the order instead of following the example of a number of European states that decided to negotiate new delivery dates with Airbus because of delays in the manufacture of the planes.
"We didn't have any reason to believe that the South African government was going to terminate the contract," Birns said.
The government has been under pressure to pull out of the deal, signed in 2005, since Armscor chief executive Sipho Thomo revealed that the initial R17-billion procurement cost had shot up to R47-billion.
There were fears that a decision to pull out of the deal would result in Airbus cancelling various multi-million rand ventures with South African companies - including the state-owned Denel.
Explaining the decision to Parliament's defence portfolio committee yesterday, Sisulu said the government would consider alternatives to the Airbus product.
The Times understands that, before the government announced the termination of the deal, a high-level dele-gation from the ministry of defence and Armscor met Airbus executives in France yesterday morning to tell them of the country's decision.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the ruling party welcomed the government's decision. He said the money should be channelled to other government priority areas.
DA MP David Maynier said: "I think that the minister has made exactly the right decision. I and my party support the decision ... but I still feel that we need to investigate this matter."
Loading...
beezlebum