Are South African intelligence services using a controversial French businessman in their Congo peace bid? The answer to a recent parliamentary question suggests they may be.
The man, Jean-Yves Ollivier, has long been regarded as a frontman for French intelligence and business interests in Africa — allegedly also serving as a key sanctions buster for apartheid South Africa.
The involvement of Ollivier in the negotiations at Sun City this year was recently questioned by Democratic Alliance MP Raenette Taljaard, who asked Deputy President Jacob Zuma whether Ollivier, or any of his associates, acted as an adviser to the South African government in respect of the Inter-Congolese dialogue — and, if so, whether he was paid for his services.
In a startling response, Zuma refused to reply, citing the fact that ”the question relates to an intelligence matter”. Further inquiries sent by the Mail & Guardian to the Ministry of Intelligence produced a terse ”no comment”.
Had Ollivier merely been a participant, there appears to be no reason why Zuma should not have indicated this fact. Ollivier’s independent participation in the negotiations would have stemmed naturally from his close association with Jean-Pierre Bemba, the head of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC).
The MLC is one of the rebel groups that has been fighting the Kinshasa government; in the case of the MLC with the backing of Uganda.
A source close to Ollivier says there were discussions between Ollivier and the Department of Foreign Affairs about him acting to assist South Africa, but the source claims this proposal was never consummated.
However, Zuma’s more ambiguous answer casts new light on the outcome of the Sun City talks, where at the last minute a deal was signed between the Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Bemba’s MLC, a move that sidelined many of the other participants.
South Africa appeared to publicly distance itself from this bilateral agreement, but Zuma’s answer raises questions as to whether Ollivier was used to ram through some sort of agreement before the talks ended in total failure. His answer also raises questions about South Africa’s bona fides in the process because of Ollivier’s close identification with Bemba.
Indeed, Congolese sources told the M&G last week that word in Kinshasa was that Kabila felt he had given too much ground at Sun City and was now attempting to renegotiate that deal — the terms of which would have kept him on as transitional president, but located real power in the hands of Bemba, as transitional prime minister.
According to the authoritative African newsletter Southscan the secretary general of the MLC, Olivier Kamitatu, has accused the Kabila government of putting in new ”zealous and ill-informed negotiators”. Southscan reported that on May 25 Kamitatu warned that Kabila’s new hardline approach could jeopardise the entire deal and lead to the de facto partitioning of the country.
The involvement of Ollivier in the Congo process raises serious questions about the nature of the outcome. According to intelligence sources, Ollivier has a history of being a middleman for questionable deals between France and Africa. One intelligence assessment states: ”The pattern of such deals, which have fuelled the French political system and enriched politicians and senior officials for 50 years, typically exploits two opportunities, the French purchase of raw materials from Africa at well below market price, and French sale of industrial goods, especially military equipment, to Africa at well above market price.”
Both Ollivier and Bemba were singled out by the report of the United Nations panel of experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources of the Congo.
The report stated: ”Jean-Pierre Bemba’s friends, Jean-Yves Ollivier, Jean-Pierre Dupont and Jean-Pierre Saber, have all used Bangui as the arrière-base for their diamond and coffee deals.”
However, in a later addendum, apparently under threat of legal action, the panel stated: ”Mr Ollivier met with the Panel. He explained to the Panel that, while active in the region as an independent political mediator, he is not involved in commercial activities in the Central African Republic and the region.”
However, Ollivier himself has boasted that he sees no wrong in using the political contacts he makes — in the course of what he likes to call his ”parallel diplomacy” — to help secure favours in business. He doesn’t see being favoured in a tender because of his political connections as being corruption, as long as different tenderers offer roughly the same deal.
In this regard he has cited the 10% of the Polana hotel in Maputo that he received from the Mozambique government for helping ”secure peace” with Renamo. His relationship with President Denis Sassou Nguesso also helped him to get a stake in Congo-Brazzaville cellphone operator Celtel.
While he claims never to have dealt in arms, Ollivier did well as a middleman in sanctions-busting deals between the French and the apartheid government. According to an intelligence source this included a huge deal to import South African coal that supposedly originated from Poland.
According to Noseweek magazine, he was also the man who set up the 1989 deal to channel money via the Strategic Fuel Fund to support Ivory Coast politician Henri Bedie on behalf of the South African foreign affairs department — a scheme exposed by the investigation of the public protector into the affairs of the fuel fund.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report found that he had been paid by the old department of foreign affairs to advance South Africa’s interests in francophone Africa.
However, Ollivier made a seamless transition to a position of honour and influence in the post-1994 democratic South Africa. He was awarded the Order of Good Hope by President Nelson Mandela in recognition of his role in initiating the negotiations that attempted a peaceful handover of power from former Zaire President Mobuto to the then rebel leader Laurent Kabila, the assassinated father of present Congo President Joseph Kabila.
Ollivier also developed a close relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and is believed to have facilitated her visit to Congo-Brazzaville last year.
He had a stake in several early empowerment deals, including an initial interest in Afrisun and in the local arm of French arms and technology company Thomson CSF, the latter at the same time that Schabir Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings was brought into the company. The resultant joint venture, African Defence Systems, has played a prominent and controversial role in the arms deal scandal.