The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> will launch a high court application to review and set aside or substitute Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s findings on the Oilgate scandal — not only his criticism of the <i>M&G</i>, but on the substantive findings too.
Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana will release his report on the Oilgate saga on Friday. Complaints were laid by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and later by the Democratic Alliance after the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> revealed that R11-million of a R15-million advance payment on a state oil contract was diverted to the African National Congress in December 2003.
Imvume Management, the company at the centre of the Oilgate debacle, has launched a court action to force the Mail & Guardian to expose its confidential sources. On Thursday last week the company lodged an application in the Johannesburg High Court to compel the M&G, to disclose how the newspaper acquired information relating to Imvume’s bank account and ”the precise source” of such information.
A R1-billion crude oil tender — one of South Africa’s largest ever — went to African National Congress-linked company Imvume Management after an extraordinary series of interventions that suggest the tender was rigged. Last week we showed how the ruling party helped secure Iraqi oil allocations for its corporate pet, Imvume Management. This week we reveal how a tainted tender won Imvume the right to supply Iraqi crude to the South African state.
The African National Congress has misled the nation on the Oilgate scandal. Documents in the possession of the Mail & Guardian make it clear that Imvume Management — the company that channelled R11-million in state oil money to the ANC before the 2004 election — was effectively a front for the ruling party.
The events that led to the Oilgate saga: Iraq invades Kuwait; UN Security Council imposes comprehensive sanctions on Iraq, including lifeblood oil exports; UN approves Oil for Food programme to relieve civilian hardship — Iraq allowed to sell oil, with proceeds held in trust by UN and released only for approved humanitarian imports … See our timeline on how the ANC got involved …
This is the story of how South Africa’s ruling party offered solidarity to Saddam Hussein in exchange for crude oil — and how state resources were used to help the party in this ambitious fundraising project. The story is important for it reveals not only how the party subordinated principle to profit, but also how it engaged in business through what was effectively a front company.
The Mail & Guardian has learned that South African involvement in the Iraqi Oil for Food programme, administered by the United Nations between 1996 and 2003, has become one area of focus for investigators probing massive international abuse of the programme.
Outgoing minister of minerals and energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka ascends to the second most powerful position in the country with questions on the Oilgate saga still unresolved — and new evidence has emerged that throws doubt on her claim that she adopted a strictly hands-off approach to PetroSA, the parastatal at the centre of the controversy.
This week, the M&G brings you — in full — the story we had to black out a fortnight ago after being gagged write Stefaans Brümmer and Sam Sole.