Mark Thatcher on Friday confessed to a Cape Town magistrate that he discussed cigars and babies in meetings with his acquaintances, but swore he is innocent of coup plotting.
In a near-farcical question-and-answer session, Thatcher repeatedly said that he simply did not understand what he was being asked, or to what the questions referred.
Thatcher was subpoenaed to answer 43 questions compiled by Equatorial Guinea prosecutors and sent to South Africa last year in terms of the International Cooperation in Criminal Matters Act.
The prosecutors said they needed the answers for the trial of a group of mercenaries, which has since ended.
Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, had initially sought to block the questioning, claiming it violated his constitutional right to silence.
However, he abandoned this bid after pleading guilty last month to contravening South Africa’s anti-mercenary legislation, and paying a R3-million fine.
His answers on Friday appeared to add no new information to what was already known about his role as a financier in the coup attempt.
Magistrate Helen Allman said at the start of proceedings that she would simply put the questions as they were supplied to her, and that she was not in a position to explain or amplify them.
She did indeed read them virtually as typed, including references to payment of a ”fond” (apparently meaning ”funds”), to Simon ”Maan” (Thatcher’s friend, coup plotter Simon Mann, now in jail in Zimbabwe), and whether Thatcher had ever ”hard” of the failed coup (apparently meaning ”heard”).
At one point Thatcher told her: ”I am not sure I understand the question, to be honest with you.”
That question was: ”Have ever told any body about the coup against Equatorial Guinea, as it affect Simon Francis Maan, Nick du Toit and the others [all sic]?”
Another question was: ”Its an established fact that you have been arrested once in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the crime of trafficking in Arms, can you tell us what kind of Arms is been refer, the date, month and the year of the incident?, and what was the outcome of the incident?.”
A relaxed-looking Thatcher, wearing a blue sports jacket and open-necked purple shirt, answered: ”I have never been arrested on any matter in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Meetings with Mann
He said he met Mann on several occasions since they were introduced by a mutual friend at a Cape Town Waterfront pub in 1997.
The most recent meeting was in February last year at Sandton Square in Johannesburg. Thatcher said he recollected Mann had been advised his wife was pregnant ”and we met to celebrate that fact”.
To his recollection, he discussed Equatorial Guinea with Mann on two occasions.
”I discussed Equatorial Guinea in the context of the West Africa region and I have no recollection of talking about anybody specifically in Equatorial Guinea,” he said.
He said Mann once asked him to attend a meeting with another coup plotter, Nick du Toit (now serving a sentence in Equatorial Guinea) to discuss the purchase of two civilian helicopters.
Mann told him the aircraft were to support a mining operation in Sudan.
Thatcher said he subsequently paid about $275,000 to an aviation company as a guarantee for the sub-charter of a Denel-owned helicopter, which was flown to Namibia, stayed there three weeks and then returned to South Africa.
It is this helicopter that South African prosecutors say was meant for the coup bid, and it was for this transaction that Thatcher was last month convicted.
Asked what his reaction was to the news that Mann had been detained in Harare, he said: ”My reaction was curiosity as to the reason for his detention.”
Thatcher also denied that he was known as ”Scratcher”, one of the names mentioned in a letter from Mann smuggled out of jail, in which Mann said a ”large splodge of wonga” was needed to get him out of his predicament.
Oil millionaire
He said he had met British oil millionaire Eli Calil, who has also been linked to the coup bid, three times, including once for tea, and once for lunch as part of a larger group of guests.
”On all occasions, I would characterise our conversation as social,” he said.
He also acknowledged having met former Irish Guards officer and prominent Tory Nigel Morgan (spelled in the questions as Mlorgan) on several occasions, including an August 2004 lunch in Johannesburg.
”I have to admit out conversation was wide-ranging, and included cigars,” Thatcher said. They had also discussed Mann’s prison conditions.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, Thatcher said that merely because he met some of the individuals about whom questions were asked did not mean he had any business relationship with them.
”It is a mystery to me why I should be required to give evidence as a witness in a trial which ended four months ago,” he said.
”However, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to do so, and do so under oath, because as you have observed, from the answers to the questions it is patently clear that I had nothing to do with the financing of any coup in Equatorial Guinea.”
Asked about speculation that he was considering moving to Switzerland, he said: ”You’ve got it absolutely right: speculation. I’m looking to buy another house in South Africa.”
”In Cape Town?” asked a journalist.
”In Cape Town. Is there anywhere else?”
His upmarket Constantia home was recently sold for what the agent said was a record price for the area. — Sapa