Cape Town | Wednesday
THREE agencies who are jointly investigating South Africa’s multi-billion dollar arms procurement deal on Tuesday said they could find no evidence to suggest a flaw in the government’s contracting position.
The head of the Directorate for Public Prosecutions — one of the agencies involved — said no link between officials still under investigation, for possible conflicts of interest, and the politicians involved in the process could be found.
“As matters stand now, there are no grounds at all (to suggest contracts were flawed)… I don’t know if any matters will arise now to make us change our view, but I don’t think so,” Bulelani Ngcuka told parliamentarians during a quiz session on the report, which was tabled in parliament last month.
The report on the investigation found no “improper or unlawful conduct” by the government, and no grounds to suggest its contracting position was flawed.
“We are very comfortable with the finding, I’ll put my neck on the block for this,” Ngcuka is quoted by the South African News Agency Sapa as saying.
The Directorate of Prosecutions however, arrested and charged Schabir Shaik, a bidding contractor in the deal and brother of the country’s defence procurement chief, Shamin “Chippy” Shaik, in November for the theft of classified documents.
Shaik was the third person to be charged as a result of the investigation.
Former chief whip of the ruling African National Congress Tony Yengeni was charged on October 3 with corruption, perjury and forgery related to the deal. He resigned from his post the day after his arrest.
On October 10, Michael Woerfel, the South African boss of the multi-national European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) with interests in the deal, was also charged.
Under the deal South Africa will purchase nine fighter jets from Gripen, of Sweden, 12 trainer Hawk jets from SAAB-British Aerospace, 30 light helicopters from the Italian-based Augusta, and three submarines and four patrol vessels from German Frigate. -AFP