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DA: Arms deal worries new NEC
09/01/2008 18:20 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The ANC's decision to obtain its own report on the controversial arms deal signalled that the party's new national executive committee had its own concerns about the role of its former president Thabo Mbeki while chairperson of the arms acquisition committee, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday.
It also indicated that in addition to many members of the public, large sections of the party also believed the original report on the matter was inaccurate.
"The ANC's decision to appoint an internal ad hoc committee to obtain 'a detailed factual report' on the arms deal clearly indicates that it is not only the broad public which believes that the Joint Investigating Team Arms Deal Report was inaccurate, but also a large section of the ANC," said Sandra Botha, parliamentary leader of the DA.
On Tuesday, in a press briefing after the first meeting of its newly elected NEC, the ANC said it had established an ad-hoc committee to obtain its own report on the controversial multibillion rand deal.
"Clearly the (Jacob) Zuma NEC has its own concerns about the role President Mbeki played in his position as then deputy president and chairperson of the arms acquisition committee," said Botha.
Botha believed that the nature of the committee was purely "party political" and may be more focused on scoring political points than in answering the real issues.
It had asked numerous questions in Parliament about the arms deal and in particular about the "unexplained" visits of Mbeki to France, and his appointment of Mo Shaik as South Africa's consul general to Hamburg, Germany at the time when "extraordinary interventions were done to reverse decisions and beneficiaries of the deal".
"The Speaker of Parliament has repeatedly disallowed these questions from being asked," said Botha.
- SAPA
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