‘NPA obstructing $10bn arms deal investigation’

There is “a lack of interest” in the reopened $10-billion investigation of two European companies involved in the arms deal, which implicates former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki in the alleged corruption. 

This was the assertion made by Freddy Motsepe, the chairperson and chief executive of the Bakgatla Group, an investment management firm whose submissions to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) caused it to reopen the corruption investigation that was formally closed by the Hawks in 2010. 

NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga confirmed that the prosecuting authority had reopened the criminal investigation into British manufacturing firm BAE Systems and the German Frigate Consortium for alleged fraud and corruption committed by the two companies in supplying fighter jets for South Africa’s Strategic Defence Procurement Package programme, which began in 1994 and was completed in 1999. 

The alleged involvement of Mandela and Mbeki is in a German police report dated February 2007, which alleges a telephone conversation in January 1995 between the two about giving contracts to the German consortium. 

At the time, Mandela was the president and Mbeki his deputy. 

The German police report said that after the conversation, Mbeki intimated that there was still a chance for the German consortium to be awarded a contract to supply fighter jets, despite a Spanish and a Scottish company being selected in December 1994 as the two preferred firms to enter the next bidding round. 

“We will put it [the bidding] on the table again … there is still hope for you [German Frigate Consortium],” Mbeki is quoted as having told the consortium’s officials during his January 1995 visit to Germany, after he had allegedly discussed this with Mandela. 

The police report alleges that large-scale bribery of senior government and ANC officials took place for BAE Systems and the German Frigate Consortium to receive the lucrative contracts. 

Mandlenkosi Dakada, spokesperson for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said: “The foundation is not aware of the reopened arms deal investigation. In principle, the foundation supports the need for such investigations to be pursued and concluded. We have not been contacted by any law enforcement authority in relation to the investigation.”

Eugen Witte, the spokesperson for ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, which incorporated the companies Blohm & Voss and HDW that formed part of the German consortium, said the Arms Procurement Commission of Inquiry chaired by retired judge Willie Seriti between 2012 and 2016 had “concluded that there was no evidence of improper payments”. 

Witte added he was aware that the Pretoria high court had overturned Seriti’s findings, and understood that the arms deal investigation had been reopened. 

“Through its external legal counsel, ThyssenKrupp is in regular cooperative exchange with the responsible public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is monitoring the development of the situation in South Africa,” Witte told the Mail & Guardian. 

The reopening of the arms deal investigation, according to an NPA letter to Motsepe, was finalised in March 2020 with the appointment, “on contract”, of advocate Isak du Plooy, who “was previously employed by the [disbanded Scorpions] and was also part of the arms deal investigating team”. 

“[Du Plooy] is currently following up on the previous applications for Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) to the United Kingdom, Germany, Lichtenstein, Jersey and Switzerland. 

“He has had a consultation with advocate E Leonard, who is very knowledgeable on MLAs to establish the current status of these MLAs and to seek her guidance on how to proceed in restarting the applications for MLAs to the above mentioned countries,” reads the NPA note, which is dated April 2020.

An MLA is an agreement between countries for the cooperative gathering of information and evidence for criminal prosecution. 

The NPA note added that a “further status report” would be provided to Motsepe “on or about 20 June 2020”. 

But Motsepe said: “The UK authorities are keen to give the South African government what they need, but the justice department seems to be stalling on the MLA processes. The MLA processes have been in limbo because of the obstruction of justice [caused by] the justice department and the NPA’s [inaction]. 

“This really is what is sensitising me to share this with the media. I have tried to repeatedly follow up with the NPA to find out where they are in terms of the MLA process, but I am not getting any cooperation.” 

He added that the $10-billion payment for the fighter jets was part of a countertrade offset arrangement, which obligated the preferred manufacturers to generate economic activity of that same value in South Africa as part of receiving the arms contracts.

Mhaga, speaking on behalf of the NPA, disputed that there was any obstruction to the investigation, saying the authority was forging ahead with it. 

“The investigation is on-going and the details thereof cannot be ventilated in the media. Advocate Du Plooy is still involved in the case, working with investigators from the Hawks,” Mhaga said.

 On assertions that the NPA had not updated him as promised and was obstructing the investigation, Mhaga again refuted Motsepe’s allegations. 

 “We are not aware of any obstruction. On the contrary, the very same letter Motsepe provided to Mail & Guardian confirms that investigations are continuing and letters of request for Mutual Legal Assistance have been sent to several overseas countries.”

 Asked whether implicated parties, such as Mbeki and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, had been contacted about the investigation, and whether arrests were expected, Mhaga said: “Details of the nature of the investigations currently under way will not be ventilated in the media.” Nick Haigh, spokesperson for BAE Systems, and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, did not respond to questions sent by the M&G four days ago.

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