Changes to the mandate of the Donen Commission of Inquiry into possible illicit business deals between South African companies and individuals in former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s government were on hold for now, President Thabo Mbeki indicated in reply to a parliamentary question on Friday.
He was asked by Freedom Front Plus MP Willie Spies — who has devoted much attention to what has become known as Oilgate — whether “in noting the testimony heard in the Donen Commission and that which came to the fore in the High Court application … he would give consideration to expanding the commission’s mandate to also include an investigation into the possible unjust enrichment of political parties from the United Nations’ Iraqi Oil-For-Food Programme; if not, why not; if so, what would the mandate entail?”
Mbeki said that some of the persons and entities summoned to testify before the Donen Commission had “brought an application before our courts, challenging aspects of the regulations of the commission”.
He said he would await the outcome “of such court proceedings before considering any further action in respect of the commission’s work”.
The inquiry was recently derailed when Montega Trading, Omni Energy Corporation and Falcon Commodity Trading representative Rodney Hemphill queried the legality of the commission to force subpoenaed parties to answer potentially incriminatory questions.
The probe into Oilgate was also referred to Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana after it was alleged that PetroSA, through Imvume Management, had funneled R11-million of public money to the ruling party before the 2004 election.
Mushwana said the transaction had been between the ruling African National Congress and Imvume — which were private entities.
Then the Donan commission was tasked with probing the truth of United Nations allegations against Imvume and a number of companies including Glaxo Welllcome SA, Montega Trading and Omni Oil.
The commission was given the task of establishing whether illicit payments were made and kickbacks received from the former Iraqi government under the United Nations oil-for-food programme. ‒ I-Net Bridge