Deputy President Jacob Zuma says French arms manufacturer Thales has denied the existence of a note alleged to reveal that he tried to solicit a half-a-million-rand-a-year bribe from the company.
In a statement this week Zuma said that after he had been unsuccessful in procuring the “encrypted note” from the Scorpions through the court process in September this year, he had written to the French arms manufacturer for a copy.
“The response from the French company [Thales] clearly confirmed to me that the National Director of Public Prosecutions [Bulelani Ngcuka] had no basis [as he claimed he had] for continuing the investigation against me, particularly after the French company representative — who had been interviewed in 2001 by the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) — stated that he had no knowledge of the alleged bribe solicitation, which he is alleged to have written about.”
Zuma also announced that in the light of the lack of evidence against him, he was lodging a complaint with the Public Protector about the manner in which the NDPP had conducted its investigations against him over the past three years. He said that he “wanted to know the reason for the permanent state of investigation” he is under.
In the statement, Zuma said that he had indicated to Minister of Justice Penuell Maduna that Ngcuka had been unable to deal with the matter “objectively” and had requested Maduna’s intervention.
Zuma said that he had submitted answers to questions posed by the Scorpions on August 13 and “expected [Ngcuka] to engage with me on the questions or ask for further clarification if the answers were inadequate, as I had invited him to do so”.
He had then learnt from the announcements of Ngcuka’s spokesperson that he had not answered the questions “satisfactorily”.
Two weeks ago the Mail & Guardian reported that Zuma was conducting his own investigations in a bid to clear his name of allegations of bribery linked to the multibillion-rand arms deal. Thales and its South African subsidiary, African Defence Systems, were part of the German Frigate Consortium that successfully bid for the R6-billion contract to supply the South African Navy with four new corvette warships.
An African National Congress member who was present at a meeting with party members in Durban about a month ago said Zuma had informed them that the French arms executive alleged to have been the author of a handwritten note containing details of the bribe had denied writing it.
The note is believed to be the main evidence against Zuma.
NDPP spokesperson Sipho Ngwema declined to comment on the deputy president’s statement.