Paul Kirk
Companies that lost out in the R60-billion arms deal are limbering up to sue the government after the long-awaited report into the arms deal, which could provide crucial information to mount lawsuits.
The Mail & Guardian reported last week that Italian airplane manufacturer Aermacchi was considering litigation after tender procedures were changed to overlook their product in favour of the British Aerospace Hawk a plane that originally came third in the tender evaluation.
This week the local representative of Swiss gearbox manufacturer Maag said it too was considering litigation. Maag was originally chosen to supply the giant gearboxes for the Navy corvettes. After being chosen by the German Frigate Consortium and the Department of Defence for supplying a better product, Maag was named as preferred supplier.
Then, with little explanation, Armscor intervened in the deal and insisted the consortium use a gearbox made by Renk.
Maag was deemed by naval experts assigned to the armaments acquisition committee to make a less complex gearbox with a better noise signature. The noise signature is of vital importance to naval vessels as the more noise a gearbox makes the easier it is for a submarine or homing torpedo to locate the vessel and destroy it.
Tienie van Staden, director of Joesten Marketing, the agents for Maag, said his principals may yet litigate. “It has always been our intention to litigate providing we are not on our own. If other companies are prepared to take the battle to court then we will join in.”
Maag originally did not offer trade offsets as attractive as Renk’s and it was ostensibly for this reason they were deselected after being selected. However, they later increased their offsets but were still pipped by Renk.
Richard Young, managing director of C2I2 which lost out on a bid to supply systems for the navy’s corvettes told the M&G that he too was planning on civil litigation. Young said he was waiting to study the report before deciding what course of action to take. “I am waiting for the report with glee. Once I have studied it I will decide on a plan of action early in the new year.”
The deal also faces a legal challenge from a group called Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, which wants to take the government to the Constitutional Court, if necessary, to overturn the loan agreements that finance the arms deal.
The group’s South African head, anti-arms campaigner Terry Crawford-Browne, intends to argue that the loan agreements signed to finance the arms deal cannot be justified constitutionally or legally and that they should be set aside. If the order is granted it will see the arms acquisition programme collapse with no money being available to supply the arms dealers.
Crawford-Browne will be using the services of one of the country’s top advocates, Malcolm Wallis SC former chairperson of the General Bar Council of South Africa in his campaign.