President Thabo Mbeki still needs to answer a number of questions related to a controversial Nigerian oil deal secured with his support in 1999, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday.
Earlier this year the Mail & Guardian revealed how a lucrative Nigerian crude oil contract, allocated in 1999 to ”the Republic of South Africa” after lobbying by President Thabo Mbeki, was scooped by a private company registered in the Cayman Islands.
The contract was widely portrayed — not least by Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka — as belonging to ”South Africa”. Yet neither the oil, nor the revenue, had reached the South African state or public.
The multimillion-rand annual profits from selling the Nigerian allocation go to a Cayman-registered entity named South African Oil Company. Camac, a United States-based group of companies led by prominent Nigerian-American Kase Lawal, says it holds 75% of the shares.
A local sister company by the same name, South African Oil Company, was also involved in the deal. Its shareholders and directors include Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi’s wife and Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile’s brother-in-law.
Explanations offered by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) and by Camac seek to portray the deal as strictly in the private domain.
DA spokesperson Ian Davidson said he had now received a copy of the letter — dated July 9 1999 — sent by Mbeki to his Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo, supporting the South African Oil Company’s (SAOC) application for a long-term contract to lift Nigerian oil.
The presidency ”claims” there were no other records pertaining to his request for information about the deal in terms of access to information legislation, Davidson said.
”This is surprising. Surely someone made representation to the president, which resulted in his endorsing the deal.
”It is clear from the president’s letter that he believed the oil was destined for South Africa.
”He even made the point that ‘South Africa(n) refineries have a capacity of approximately 600 000 barrels of crude oil processed a day, all of which is currently imported from the Middle Eastern countries’. ”
Without any information to the contrary, one was forced to conclude that Mbeki was approached by the South African incarnation of the SAOC, in which case this would be a ”classic case of special pleading on behalf of a company that has significant connections with the ANC”, he said.
If he was approached by SAOC (Cayman Islands), or even Camac, the United States-based parent of the SAOC, Mbeki was still not off the hook, he said.
”Did the president decide to support this deal without any due diligence being done on the deal? One would think that government endorsement would only be given where there was some guarantee of a clear and direct benefit for the South African economy.
”Furthermore, the government subsequently went on to support an application from SAOC to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company for its allocation to be increased. By that stage, it was quite clear that the oil was not coming to South Africa.”
Mbeki also had to say whether he had withdrawn his endorsement of the deal after it came to his attention that the oil was being diverted to the Cayman Islands, Davidson said.
On Thursday, the presidency washed its hands of the deal.
It was not Mbeki’s role to check whether or not the oil ended up in South Africa, director general in the presidency Frank Chikane said in Pretoria.
”What happened afterwards… does not concern the president. That you can find from other sources.”
Chikane said Mbeki’s role ended with creating a climate conducive for business.
”Once that is done, the president does not get involved in details.” – Sapa