Stefaans Brmmer
Guest Author
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/ 12 May 2006

Oil inquiry on the skids

There are fears that the Donen commission investigating South African abuse of the Iraq oil-for-food programme may not regain momentum after public hearings were abandoned as they were about to start. The commission backed down in the face of a Pretoria High Court challenge by a witness it had subpoenaed to testify first. Bad drafting of its powers left it little choice.

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/ 24 March 2006

SA’s nuclear bazaar

As Germany mounts the first prosecution targeting an international nuclear contraband ring, details are emerging of how South Africa was a key base for supplying pariah states. Authorities as far afield as Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Pakistan and South Africa were jolted into action after October 2003 when a cargo ship, the <i>BBC China</i>, was searched at an Italian port in a United States-British intelligence operation.