Finance Minister Trevor Manuel accused Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille on Tuesday of being a ”useful idiot” in the hands of people who lost out on arms deal contracts.
He was responding in the National Assembly to De Lille, who called for further investigations of the information in what she called the ”De Lille dossier” (on alleged irregularities relating to the multi-billion rand arms acquisition programme).
”The NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) should pursue the enemies of the state within the context of the arms deal,” De Lille said.
Part of the dossier became a record of the court during the Schabir Shaik trial in Durban, and those named in it should be investigated and charged, she said.
De Lille used her parliamentary privilege to call for the prosecution of six South Africans who she says should be charged in connection with the arms deal.
She described them as South Africa’s ”most wanted list”.
The ID further called on the NPA to investigate the British Aerospace Hawk fighter aircraft deal. Why pay R70-million more than the market price, she asked.
”The German frigates (corvettes) from Ferrostaal, (cost) an additional R750 million for each frigate (corvette),” De Lille said.
In his response, Manuel said De Lille should desist from naming people ”in the way that she does, because if she does so, then she must be prepared to name those names outside”.
”You see, what’s very important about the issues that she raises here is that these have been matters of thoroughgoing investigations (by the auditor general, the public protector, and the NPA joint investigation team).
”The two Chapter Nine institutions and the NPA sat in this House and reported on their findings. That she doesn’t accept those findings suggests she doesn’t accept the supremacy of the Chapter Nine institutions, and therefore she disregards the Constitution. That’s a fundamental problem,” he said.
”In respect of the choice of weaponry that we bought, we didn’t go to a bargain basement sale to find the cheapest aeroplane on the market. We wanted to equip the air force with the best.
”Similarly, in the purchase of the corvettes, we wanted to equip the navy with the best. So, that it wasn’t the cheapest is neither here not there.
”All what that does is to show two things. The first is that the honourable De Lille has no idea what she is taking about.
”And the second is that she’s a useful idiot in the hands of those who failed in their bid to secure the contracts,” Manuel said. – I-Net Bridge