Deputy President Jacob Zuma rejects outright allegations that he attempted to secure a bribe from an arms procurement contractor, his office said on Monday.
In a brief statement, Zuma’s office said: “The Deputy President has not been charged with any criminal offence, and the continuing allegations and rumours linking him to corruption and bribery are ridiculous, malicious, insulting and defamatory.
“The Deputy President remains ready to defend himself and will co-operate with any law enforcement agency that could be investigating this case.”
Following a Mail&Guardian investigation last month, the Scorpions investigation team are now probing allegations that Zuma attempted to solicit a bribe from a French defence contractor Thales.
The Scorpions have also subpoenaed and obtained the deputy president’s personal banking records.
In addition, the South African authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of the contractor, Alain Thetard. He is the former head of Thales’s Southern Africa division and the man alleged to have met secretly with Zuma and his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, in a Durban hotel to confirm Zuma’s supposed demand for payment.
Zuma has vehemently denied the allegation that he requested a payment of R500 000 a year from Thales. The request was alleged to have been in return for Zuma’s “protection” during the probe of the company’s share of South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms procurement deal — as well as for the deputy president’s “permanent support” of future Thales projects.
It is not known whether Zuma’s financial records have revealed anything untoward as Scorpions representative Sipho Ngwema said the Scorpions would not comment on ongoing investigations.
It was Thetard’s handwritten memo to his superiors detailing his meeting with Zuma on March 11 2000 — and describing Zuma’s alleged “encoded declaration” confirming the bribe demand — that provided the Scorpions with one of their strongest pieces of evidence.
The memo was obtained in the course of the Scorpions’ initial investigations, which included raids on Thetard’s home and office in Mauritius in October 2001.
Thetard faces immediate arrest should he try to re-enter South Africa, but he cannot be extradited as France has a policy of not handing over its own citizens for trial in other countries.
He has retreated from his former base in Mauritius, where he also risked arrest, to France, where he is protected from extradition.
However it is understood that the Directorate for Public Prosecution views the case against Thetard as so important that they are considering asking the French authorities to institute a domestic prosecution, using evidence handed over by South Africa.
Matt Pothecary, a representative for Thales, said the company denied the allegations of corruption.
He said while Thetard refused to come to South Africa to face charges, he was willing to answer any questions in Paris via the cooperation agreement that exists between the French and South African justice authorities.
The pressure on Thetard parallels the pressure being put on Shaik. Shaik is still facing charges relating to the alleged illegal possession of documents which were recovered from his Durban flat during the October 2001 raids.
He has also been summonsed to answer questions about the alleged March 2000 meeting with Zuma and Thetard.
Shaik has launched a challenge in the Durban High Court contesting both the summons and the search warrant which enabled the raid on his home and business, but no date has been set for the hearing. – I-Net Bridge, Mail&Guardian reporter