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'Mbete must allow Mbeki query'
25/02/2008 18:35 - (SA)
Cape Town - National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete has barred the Democratic Alliance from asking President Thabo Mbeki questions regarding his involvement in the arms deal, said DA Parliamentary leader Sandra Botha on Monday.
"Another attempt by the Democratic Alliance to clarify the muddied waters of the arms deal has been barred by Speaker Baleka Mbete," she said in a statement.
Mbete had disallowed a DA parliamentary question directed to Mbeki, asking whether he still could not recall a meeting he allegedly held with representatives of French arms company Thompson CSF in 1998.
This was in light of former ambassador Barbara Masekela's recent admission that she had arranged a meeting between the President Mbeki and the French arms company.
Botha said it was important for Mbeki to respond to the question now that Masekela had confirmed making arrangements for the meeting.
'Highly inappropriate'
"This is one of the key questions surrounding the arms deal which has yet to be answered.
"This meeting is of great significance as it would have been highly inappropriate at best, and possibly illegal at worst, for the chair of the ministerial committee responsible for the allocation of the arms deal contracts to have met in secret with one of the bidders," she said.
Mbete should explain why she decided to disallow the question.
"The DA will continue to do everything possible to ensure that the president is made to explain his actions in relation to this issue and to ensure that the truth of the arms deal eventually comes out," said Botha.
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