Zuma wants closure on arms deal

The arms deal will - after haunting the government for more than a decade - be investigated again.

In a surprise announcement yesterday, President Jacob Zuma said he would appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of corruption involving arms merchants who facilitated the sale of planes, helicopters, ships and submarines to the country.

The news, "although long-overdue" was welcomed with "great delight" by anti-arms activists. They, along with opposition political parties, warned that the commission cannot "just [be] part of fudging".

Zuma's move comes more than a year after activist Terry Crawford-Browne had lodged papers in the Constitutional Court in a bid to force the president to reopen the investigation and years after several dossiers with "conclusive" evidence were presented to authorities.

Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said the president had previously taken a view that, since the matter was the subject of court action, he would allow legal processes to take their course.

Formal investigations into the arms deal started in 2000 when parliament's standing committee on public accounts requested a multi-agency probe, but this never saw the light of day.

"However, he has since taken into account the various developments around this matter and also the fact that closure on this subject will be in the public interest," said Maharaj.

Although Zuma is yet to announce the terms of reference, the composition of the commission or the time frames within which the process is to be completed, Crawford-Browne has, through his lawyer, Paul Hoffman, warned he would not sit by idly if the commission was not properly constituted and if its remit was not wide-ranging.

Justice Department spokesman Tlali Tlali said Minister Jeff Radebe would only be able to assist once the commission's terms of reference had been defined by Zuma. Tlali said this might be finalised today.

Crawford-Browne learnt of the decision only through the media, but Hoffman said he had in May already sent Zuma a proposal to set up the commission.

A Constitutional Court date was set for November 17, but Zuma had repeatedly missed deadlines to file affidavits and was eventually ordered to respond by the end of this month.

Hoffman believes Zuma's decision could be based on legal opinion and several damning affidavits submitted in court. "The ultimate goal of this exercise is to place in the public domain that which would entitle the South African government to cancel all the deals as they were [allegedly] done fraudulently," said Hoffman.

To ensure that the inquiry is not unnecessarily long and is capable of dealing efficiently with all four aspects of the arms deal, Crawford-Browne has proposed that Zuma appoint retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo to head the commission and that he be assisted by four senior judges, either from the Constitutional Court or Supreme Court of Appeal.

Hoffman said the commission should not only be able to ultimately force the government to cancel the controversial deals and return the arms to the suppliers, but also force those who solicited and accepted bribes from foreign arms manufacturers to repay such money.

People suspected of receiving or channelling bribes include Chippy Shaik, head of defence procurement when the arms deal was finalised in the late 1990s, and Fana Hlongwane, adviser to then-defence minister Joe Modise.

Shaik stood accused of negotiating a R20-million bribe with one of the companies in the German Frigate Consortium, which sold South Africa four patrol corvettes. Hlongwane allegedly received about R250-million from BAE Systems, much of it via an opaque offshore network.

BAE spokesman Leonie Foster said the company had not yet been notified of any inquiry but that it would "co-operate fully with any official bodies in the event we are required to do so".

Though Cosatu welcomed Zuma's announcement, it reminded him that allegations against National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele and Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde relating to the police lease deals required the same attention.

Patricia de Lille, one of the arms deal whistle-blowers, said all the allegations contained in the so-called "De Lille Dossier", some of which had led to the arrest and conviction of Schabir Shaik and Tony Yengeni, should be included in the inquiry's terms of reference.

The Helen Suzman Foundation said the terms of reference of the inquiry and the composition of the commission would be paramount in determining its legitimacy.

The SACP also welcomed the decision, saying the commission should be allowed to dig deep and "lay this matter to rest once and for all".

Opposition parties yesterday said South Africans deserved to know the truth.

DA leader Hellen Zille questioned the "interesting" timing of Zuma's announcement.

"New information concerning alleged corruption in the arms deal is now emerging in Sweden and Germany. The Constitutional Court is set to rule on this matter in early November, and this raises the question of whether the president is pre-empting a possible court finding requiring him to appoint a commission of inquiry," Zille said.

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said: "It will also shed light on the role played in the arms deal by senior ANC leaders who were part of the previous administration who also hold senior positions in the current administration."

The A C DP said the commission would face a "formidable task" given the time that had lapsed and the enormity of evidence involved.