UK probes arms deal with SA

That official apparently had influence over a R21bn contract won by the arms company to supply planes at nearly twice the price of a rival bidder. According to the The Guardian, the Scorpions was handling a 'mutual legal assistance' request from the SFO to investigate the financial accounts of Fana Hlongwane, a politically well-connected businessman, in relation to the 1999 deal. Hlongwane is a former special adviser to the then South African Defence Minister Joe Modise. At the time, Hlongwane was also a director of arms company Denel. He is now the chairperson of the Ngwane Defence Group, which comprises SA companies involved in the manufacture of defence equipment. The SFO is also investigating BAE's agent in southern Africa and whose UK home and offices were raided in October. According to the Sunday Times, Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi would only say: 'We are not going to say anything for now because those who are close to the investigation are on leave,' he said. SFO detectives were expected to travel to Pretoria soon. Full report in The Guardian Full Sunday Times report

Modise, who quit the post in 1999 and died in 2001, was named in a Parliamentary report that year as being involved in a company that stood to benefit from the arms-procurement deal. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, the deal included the purchase of 12 trainer Hawk jets from Saab and BAE worth £1.5bn, but investigators said the government was not fully told of its costs and some contractors were treated more favourably. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

The DA has called President Thabo Mbeki to appoint a judicial commission to investigate the 1999 arms deal. According to Business Day, the DA's Eddie Trent and Roy Jankielsohn said that from the outset the DA had called for a judicial commission of inquiry, autonomous from the state, and with a comprehensive and overarching mandate, to investigate the arms deal in its entirety. 'Until this happens, new allegations of corruption and speculation about procedural irregularities will continue to haunt the ANC government.' Full Business Day report