UK charges set to reopen arms deal
South Africans could go on trial in Britain subject to exile agreements - De Lille
October 2, 2009
By Donwald Pressly
The decision by UK prosecutors from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to flush out rotten apples in the defence industry by laying charges against BAE Systems is set to have major repercussions in South Africa.
The spotlight is set to be renewed on politicians and public servants in South Africa who played a role in determining the choice of the arms or were part of the procedures involving offset requirements. Unconfirmed reports in the past two years have suggested BAE had set up a £100m fund (R1.2bn) to bribe local politicians and officials.
While spokespeople for the presidency were not available, Moloto Mathapo, the Speaker of Parliament's spokesman, said the matter was best handled at a higher level. ID leader Patricia de Lille said South Africans could find themselves on trial in the UK subject to South Africa's extradition agreements.
UK-based BAE Systems, Europe's largest arms manufacturer, supplied Hawk fighter trainer aircraft and Gripen fighter aircraft, the latter together with Sweden's Saab, to the air force as part of South Africa's multibillion-rand arms deal of 1999.
Former standing committee on public accounts chairman Gavin Woods said the move looked set "to reopen all the speculation on possible underhanded dealings with suppliers". It was also likely to resurrect controversies over the supply of frigates by Germany.
"A proper investigation was never really carried out. It is very probable that things have been hidden," Woods added.
ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu said yesterday: "The SFO and BAE Systems issue is a matter for Britain. In South Africa the arms deal issue went through intense scrutiny and is now a closed matter... I won't say anything beyond that."
The SFO would ask the British attorney-general to take BAE Systems to court, Bloomberg said. Former British prime minister Tony Blair stopped the SFO from probing alleged bribes paid by the firm to win Saudi Arabia deals. The move to prosecute may reopen a can of worms in the UK.
De Lille said the fraud office was blocked by South African authorities for some time from taking their probes to South Africa. When they were finally given permission in 2004, they were required to work with the SA Police Service rather than the Scorpions. She hoped there would now be a change of heart from local authorities.
"I also wonder what happened to all the investigation material collected by the Scorpions," she said. The unit was disbanded earlier this year.
Woods, now a professor of public finance, said he did not believe there was deep-seated political involvement in arms deal corruption. The spotlight, he believed, would fall on some of the officials in the defence force hierarchy at the time of the 1998 decision to go ahead with the deal to re-equip South Africa's air force and navy.
Woods said there was speculation that former president Thabo Mbeki had facilitated funds for the ANC from German suppliers of the corvettes, but this had not been proven.
President Jacob Zuma had "never been in the mainstream of the arms deal decision making", said Woods, who resigned his chairmanship of the committee in the wake of what he saw as interference by ANC MPs in the probe.
"There is a lot of untested evidence that (Zuma) did receive a bribe in the hope that he would help protect Thales from the (arms deal) probe," said Woods.
Jane's Defence Weekly correspondent Helmoed Romer-Heitman did not believe there was corruption in the decision on which aircraft and sea vessels should be chosen. But there may have been corruption in the offset programme, he said.
Romer-Heitman noted that BAE Systems was involved in supplying the Gripen and the Hawk to the SA Air Force.
At the time of signing the arms deal in 1999, the air force decided to go for a single-engine craft which narrowed its options. Apart from the Gripen, there was only a French aircraft, the Mirage, available. If South Africa had chosen the latter, it would have been introducing it when the French air force was "phasing them out".
The price of $48 million (R358m) for each Gripen was a fair price, said Romer-Heitman. But De Lille argued that the Hawks were hugely overpriced.
DA defence spokesman David Maynier said that the British prosecution was the last "best hope" that the arms deal scandal would be properly investigated.
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