Mail & Guardian reporter
The three agencies investigating the government’s multibillion-rand arms procurement are planning to report their findings to Parliament by late July and, they say, prosecutions may well follow.
The heads of the three agencies National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, Auditor General Shauket Fakie and Public Protector Selby Baqwa outlined their plans for the arms probe on Thursday at a meeting called in Pretoria to elicit “greater cooperation” from media organisations.
The three heads denied speculation that Ngcuka wanted a moratorium on reporting on the probe, but pleaded that journalists share their information with the investigators so that situations could be avoided where early publication scared away witnesses or tipped off suspects.
Said Fakie: “Basically, what we’re asking for is a bit of space, and in some cases a bit of time.”
Ngcuka claimed the recent publication of details how African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni obtained his Mercedes-Benz was an example of how not to go about it. “We have been busy with the Tony Yengeni matter for some time. Our investigation is advanced and we need to finalise it as soon as possible. [But] after publication of that story, some of the [witnesses] refused to cooperate with us.”
The meeting itself got off to a rocky start when journalists protested against a proposal by Ngcuka, Fakie and Baqwa that much of the discussion be off the record so that they could give confidential details to back their plea for cooperation.
Mail & Guardian editor Howard Barrell said the effect could be to lock the M&G into an agreement not to publish information independently discovered.
After Mathatha Tsedu, chair of the South African National Editor’s Forum, said that “in terms of that approach [talking off the record], we may as well drink tea and go”, the three heads agreed to speak mostly on the record, but in lesser detail.
Fakie said the investigation concentrated on three broad areas: conflicts of interest, a “whole lot of bribes” allegedly paid, and the processes followed in the arms procurement.
Ngcuka said altogether 30 investigators were seconded from the three agencies to a central office where teams, always consisting of members from each agency, handled different aspects of the investigation. “The advantage is that our people check on each other,” he said.
Ngcuka said the statutory records of 68 entities had been requested; bank records of 24 entities and individuals were being examined; three audit firms of specific companies had been summonsed for documents; and a number of witnesses were being interviewed. “Some of the [allegations], it seems to us, may well end up in court; there may well be criminal prosecutions.”
But Ngcuka, Fakie and Baqwa also defended their decision to hold public hearings into some of the allegations criticised by the Democratic Alliance as a strategy that may scare off witnesses.