The former national director of public prosecutions was a ‘witness bearer’ and a casualty of the ominous trend in the ANC’s increasing cultural aversion to truth
For several years, the Republic of the Congo has been quietly buying an arsenal from Azerbaijan, with the latest cache arriving before next month’s election
Two London-based critics won’t testify at the Seriti commission of inquiry, despite the commission saying that it will reissue their subpoenas.
The Seriti Commission has dismissed "baseless and malicious assertions" that it is a cover-up, and began issuing subpoenas to three of its critics.
Expectations will be high as ex-DA MP Raenette Taljaard testifies on whether the House was undermined to ensure there was no probe into the arms deal.
Arms deal critics represented by Lawyers for Human Rights have accused the Seriti commission of making it impractical to cross-examine key witnesses.
Arms deal activists say the commission must be allowed to complete its mandate as anything less would be a "betrayal of the South African public".
The commission has not declassified all the documents before it, and legal teams are still not given adequate time to prepare for cross-examinations.
Arms deal commission critics say government witnesses are not being cross-examined, leading to one-sided evidence before the inquiry.
What is meant to be a public process may end up behind closed doors as documents at the commission have not been declassified, adding to its problems.
Arms procurement commission witness Terry Crawford-Browne says claims that the ANC is not implicated in corruption are "disingenuous".
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/ 27 October 2011
The terms of reference for the arms deal inquiry commission have been praised as broad, while at the same time criticised as not broad enough.
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/ 27 October 2010
The tepid statement made by the Hawks reveals the pitfalls of creeping hegemonic power.
South Africans search for bookish answers in a time of political doubt, writes Nosimilo Ndlovu.
Former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein on Friday called for an ”independent, unfettered” investigation into the controversial arms deal.
Partly prompted by Andrew Feinstein, there appears to be influential support for an amnesty-based approach to dealing with the unresolved questions of the arms deal. This idea should be nipped in the bud. It has a superficial attraction, but it is ill-conceived. This country has had enough amnesty; it is time for some justice, writes Richard Calland.
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/ 13 February 2008
A resolution to open up the arms deal to further discussion was shot down by the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday. Democratic Alliance MP Eddie Trent, who brought the proposal, finally withdrew it and agreed to the suggestion that the committee merely look into what progress has been made in implementing Scopa’s recommendations.
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/ 6 February 2008
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday lauded the decision by the chairperson of Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), Themba Godi, to place the DA’s request for Scopa to reopen the arms-deal probe on the agenda.
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/ 31 December 2007
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The state has identified a list of 218 witnesses it intends calling to testify in its case against African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma. Attached to the indictment, filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, the list of witnesses includes Independent Democrat party leader Patricia de Lille and former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein.
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/ 20 November 2007
President Thabo Mbeki’s office said an investigation into the arms deal had already found no wrongdoing on the part of government. This followed a media report based on an addendum to Mbeki’s online letter in his capacity as president of the African National Congress on November 16.
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/ 13 November 2007
At last Mark Gevisser’s long-awaited biography of Thabo Mbeki is out. For a project that began in 1999 and took eight years to complete, the title <i>The Dream Deferred</i> seems especially apt. As a subject, Mbeki is a walking "writer’s block". Not only is he a densely complex person, as the book confirms, but he shimmers in the light, making it all but impossible to have a single thesis to explain the man.
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/ 13 November 2007
President Thabo Mbeki was involved in the African National Congress (ANC) leadership’s blocking of a parliamentary investigation into alleged bribery by BAE Systems and other weapons firms in South Africa’s biggest arms deal to date, according to a former MP who was driven out of the ANC for spearheading the inquiry.
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/ 4 November 2007
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After eight years at the helm of Africa’s economic powerhouse, Thabo Mbeki cuts an increasingly lonely figure as the battle for the reins of the African National Congress (ANC) approaches its finale. As well as taking fresh blows from his political foes, the president has also become the target of senior ANC party members.
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/ 23 October 2007
Is Frene Ginwala the appropriate person to chair the inquiry into the conduct of suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli? Will she be impartial, or will she make findings that support President Thabo Mbeki’s controversial action regardless? My own experience of working with her raises some real concerns, writes Andrew Feinstein