Protector asked to probe latest arms deal allegations

The Protector\'s spokesperson, Charles Phahlane, said the matter would be carefully considered and they would respond soon, says The Citizen. The DA request followed reports in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, which describe how a R21m bribe was allegedly paid to Shaik via a non-existent \'mailbox company\' called Merian Ltd, in April 2000. The magazine’s article was part of the evidence which Independent Democrats (ID) leader Patricia De Lille claimed as further proof that the arms deal was riddled with corruption. I-Net Bridge says DA MP and member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Eddie Trent, says the arms deal ghost \'continues to haunt the SA Government\'. He said the only solution was for the President to establish a full judicial commission of inquiry, separate from the executive. \'President Mbeki\'s failure to do so means the DA is forced to use those other institutions, designed to protect the public from abuse by state officials, to get to the bottom of the arms deal.\' Full report in The Citizen Full I-Net Bridge report

De Lille went to the UK and Germany to seek more on the arms deal. De Lille, and a delegation that included former Judge Willem Heath met authorities in Germany and the UK about their arms deal investigations. De Lille, according to a report on the News24 site, said investigations in both countries were now at an advanced stage. She said the Germans were considering filing a request for legal assistance from the SA Government. All that now was needed was for the government to co-operate with these two countries for the investigation to be concluded, said De Lille. Heath said certain directors of German companies who were involved in the arms deals had acknowledged guilt. Although the MD of Daimler Aerospace escaped prosecution for corruption because, at the time of the bribe payments, he could not be prosecuted on this charge in terms of German law, he paid an acknowledgement of guilt fine for embezzlement. Until 1998, it was not illegal for German companies to pay bribes. Heath said the fact that the Daimler Aerospace MD had acknowledged guilt was confirmation that he supplied luxury vehicles at heavily discounted prices to 30 South Africans, including Tony Yengeni. Full report on News24 site

The latest news was broken in Der Spiegel, the German magazine, which alleged a $3m bribe was paid by that country\'s largest steel maker, ThyssenKrupp, to former defence force arms procurement head Shamin \'Chippy\' Shaik to smooth its path to clinching a €350m deal to supply SA with patrol corvettes. According to the article, the alleged bribe for the first time places the government’s arms procurement chief at the centre of alleged corruption in SA’s controversial R30bn arms deal. Der Spiegel said the investigation has uncovered internal company memos describing how Shaik met representatives from ThyssenKrupp in 1998, and requested a $3m bribe. After negotiations were concluded in December 1999, the money was paid into a fake \'mailbox company\' in London called Merian in April 2000. The article does not directly link Merian to Shaik. Full Der Spiegel Online (English) report

Meanwhile, former Secretary for Defence Pierre Steyn has spoken out for the first time about the arms deal, revealing that he resigned in November 1998 over the decision to force through the purchase of British Aerospace (BAE) Hawk jet trainers at twice the cost of those of the Italian bidder favoured by the air force. \'In the end I resigned because, as Secretary for Defence, I was going to have to account for the costs to Parliament, which I couldn’t do,\' Steyn told the Mail & Guardian Online. Steyn emphasised the role in the Hawk decision played not only by former Defence Minister Joe Modise, but by his two close associates, Ron Haywood and Llew Swan. Modise appointed Haywood as chairperson of Armscor, the state defence procurement agency in 1995 and Swan as CE in August 1998. \'It was always Modise and his friends Haywood and Swan who had had their minds made up from the start,\' Steyn recalled. \'And there was, of course, also Chippy Shaik, whom I was told to appoint. It was clear he was there to follow the Minister’s orders.\' Modise also brought Haywood, and later Swan, into Arms Acquisition Council (AAC) meetings where Modise intervened to shift the goalposts radically in favour of the purchase of the Hawk. Both Haywood and Swan deny pushing the Hawk. Swan points out he only joined Armscor in August 1998, when the tenders were already adjudicated. Full Mail & Guardian Online report See World section (below) for more on BAE