/ 21 May 1999

Attempt to smear Mandela

British newspapers have been `leaked’ damaging documents in what appears to be an elaborate plot to smear President Nelson Mandela, write Martin Welz and Mungo Soggot

Several British newspapers have been probing a story that President Nelson Mandela accepted a kickback as part of a Nigerian oil deal.

The allegations appear to be part of an elaborate ploy to smear the outgoing South African president and the African National Congress on the eve of the June 2 election.

The claims revolve around a contract between a Nigerian oil company and a Central African Republic-based wheeler- dealer, Antonio Fernandez. The suggestion is that Mandela accepted a kickback at a meeting attended by, among others, Fernandez and Nigerian military leader Abdulsalami Abubakar.

The British newspapers investigating the story have obtained copies of the contract, a cheque made out to Mandela’s personal lawyer, Ismail Ayob, and a covering letter referring to the meeting.

Ayob this week confirmed the bizarre tale. He said he had recently been approached by several British journalists to discuss the story, which he said was self-evidently part of a plan to smear Mandela.

Ayob said he had told one of them: “Do you seriously believe that a man who is in his 81st year and who has not sold anything in his life is expected to sell oil for the Nigerians?”

He said that in the end the story had a “happy ending”, as the London law firm which had initially purportedly offered the cash ended up donating $268 000 to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

The Mail & Guardian understands that the London Sunday Times was planning to run the story on May 30.

But David Leppard, the head of the “Insight” team responsible for the investigation, said this week they were not going to run it. He declined to elaborate. It is understood several other Fleet Street papers have been offered the story, but have all been uncertain how to treat it.

Ayob said that in March this year he had received an envelope from the Office of the President containing a cheque made out to him for $134 000, a covering letter from a London law firm, and a contract involving a Nigerian oil company.

The letter, addressed to the president, referred to a meeting at Abuja airport between Mandela, the Nigerian leader and the middleman, Fernandez.

The contract was between Fernandez and the Nigerian National Petroleum company, and the cheque was made out in the name of Arcadia Petroleum. The law firm representing Fernandez was Simons Muirhead & Burton.

Ayob said he had first come across Fernandez before the 1994 elections, when Fernandez had suggested donating to Mandela in his personal capacity a house in the United States. Ayob said the president had decided to use the offer to kickstart the Mandela Children’s Fund, and arranged plans to sell the house immediately after acquiring it, and transfer the proceeds to the fund, with Fernandez’s approval.

Ayob says Fernandez scuppered the deal at the eleventh hour when he was told of Mandela’s plans, irritating both him (Ayob) and Mandela.

On seeing Fernandez’s name, Ayob says he wrote to the law firm, to try and find out what was going on. When Ayob asked why he was being forwarded the money, a representative from the law firm, Simon Goldberg, said: “Ask your client.”

Ayob approached Mandela who confirmed he had met several people at the airport, including Abubaker, but had not discussed any contract. He said if any money had been discussed, it would have been in the context of the children’s fund.

At that stage Ayob says representatives from the London Sunday Times and and other British newspapers, who had apparently been leaked copies of the letter, telephoned for comment.

Ayob says he then got a call from the London solicitors, who accused him or Mandela’s office of having leaked the letter. Ayob said this was patently ridiculous as he would have then also leaked his letter expressing bewilderment at the whole affair.

The lawyer called again, this time saying there appeared to have been a big mistake, and that the money, which was to be taken from the proceeds of an oil transaction, had been earmarked for the “president’s emergency fund”. Ayob said that that name for the fund had been floated before its inception.

In the end, the London lawyer fowarded two cheques, each for $134 000, to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

Ayob said he wrote back thanking the lawyer, but said in his letter it would always be a “mystery to me” how the firm reconciled the first letter attached to the contract saying the money was for Mandela, and the second letter saying it was for the charity.

Fernandez travels on a Central African Republic diplomatic passport, and is believed to be an ambassador to the United Nations for that country. He could not be reached for comment at his New York office at the time of going to press.

It is not the first time the London Sunday Times has been linked to anti-ANC reporting. On the eve of the 1994 poll, the newspaper predicted that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would launch a rival party to the ANC, that the Western Cape was going to secede, and that Mandela would retire before the end of his first presidential term.

In its editorial columns, the paper also denounced the ANC as a communist organisation that was secretly planning to introduce socialist economic policies.

The paper has, however, paid 100 000 for the syndication rights on the biography of Mandela by veteran journalist Anthony Sampson, which it is currently running. There is speculation that the paper was holding fire on the story before completing the series.

Martin Welz is editor of Noseweek. Additional reporting by Donna Block and Belinda Beresford