AG drawn into apartheid-era arms dealer's claim

The Auditor-General faces a High Court application to produce records relating to Armscor’s controversial acquisition of 50 Puma helicopters from a French armaments company more than 30 years ago, according to a Daily Maverick report. This apartheid-era transaction has haunted the state-owned entity for decades – it is highly contentious, having been billed as an unlawful, sanctions-busting deal by the current Armscor in its fight-back against an R8bn civil claim in Portugal. Jorge Pinhol, the Portuguese arms trader who says he facilitated the deal before allegedly being duped out of his commission, wants access to confidential government records via the Auditor-General, having had no luck with soft approaches for assistance over a two-year period. Pinhol’s companies, Beverley Securities Ltd and Beverley Securities Inc, two UK and Panamanian registered entities, allegedly acted as a third-party facilitator to help SA and the French seller, then called Aerospatiale, to secure a secret delivery channel for the Pumas. This, notes the DM, was done through the Portuguese military which scored an upgrade for 10 of its own Puma helicopters as a result of the covert 1987 deal. Dubbed Project Adenia, the additional 50 Pumas were bought in spare part kits for assembly in SA where they were renamed Oryx to hide their French origin given the country’s discomfort with dealing with the apartheid government directly at a time of a UN arms embargo.