Govt rejects oil deal report

2003-05-31 14:58

Johannesburg - The government has rejected Mail and Guardian's report implicating it in an irregular oil deal with Nigeria, saying the allegations are "ridiculous as they are devoid of any truth".

"There is nothing sinister about the deal because it was done as part of building bilateral economic relations between South Africa and Nigeria," the Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS) said on Saturday.

Mail and Guardian reported that a lucrative Nigerian oil contract intended for "the Republic of South Africa", and secured with the aid of President Thabo Mbeki, in 1999, was diverted to an off-shore company with no benefit to the South African state or public.

"Instead, the company's local incarnation features figures linked to government ministers and ANC interests.

"Almost four years later, the contract is still running and the South African government has not acted to end what appears to be a fraud on the South African and Nigerian public," the newspaper claimed.

The article alleged Mbeki communicated the possibility of the deal to his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo in a note the latter received from Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin.

The GCIS said on Saturday Erwin did engage the Nigerian government in discussions on oil supplies to South Africa.

"This was done as part of building bilateral economic relations. Given South Africa's previous isolation and the political position in Nigeria these links had not existed before."

As Erwin was a trade and industry minister, such contacts with other governments were carried out wherever the country was trying to build trade links, GCIS said in a statement.

It said trade itself took place within the private sector or with particular state corporations and not between governments. Trade agreements and trade missions were precisely about promoting trade between countries.

The GCIS said Erwin had conveyed many messages from the South African government to Obasanjo and other Nigerian ministers, and there was nothing untoward in these.

"Indeed, the economic links between South Africa and Nigeria are given a high priority by the Department of Trade and Industry.

"To try and create an impression that there was some specific deal that was being arranged, and that the minister acted as some kind of 'courier' in this is both inaccurate and mischievous in the extreme."

The GCIS said there was not even a suggestion that ministers benefited from any business arrangement in the newspaper article.

Further more, if journalists involved were honestly pursuing the truth, they would have established that no violation of parliamentary and executive codes had actually occurred, it said. Nor was there any reference to state funds being used for personal gain.

The Mail and Guardian said among people who benefited from the deal were Nomusa Mufamadi, the wife of Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, Mathuding Ramathlodi, the wife of Limpopo premier Ngoako Ramathlodi and ANC senior official Zwelibanzi Nzama.

- SAPA