Mbeki: Arms deal 'by the book'

2006-07-09 21:14

Johannesburg - The government conducted its multimillion-rand arms deal according to the book, President Thabo Mbeki told SABC radio news on Sunday.

The government was clear of any wrongdoing, he commented on allegations of bribery and corruption.

While Mbeki welcomed any investigation into the matter, he believed the conclusion would not differ from that of auditor-general Shauket Fakie, who exonerated the government.

Mbeki's remarks came amid a probe into the bribery allegations by German prosecutors.

The Scorpions announced on Sunday that the unit had found no evidence implicating Mbeki, himself, in alleged irregularities.

Mbeki met executives

However, it did have information linking him to a French defence company which was implicated.

The Sunday Times reported that Mbeki had met executives of Thomson-CSF (now called Thales) in Paris while he served as deputy president in 1998 and the company had bid for a stake in the deal.

He met Thales and its South African subsidiary, Thint, to discuss matters relating to the awarding of the corvette combat suite contract and the defence company's black empowerment structure.

Thint is facing corruption charges along with former deputy president Jacob Zuma. The case is scheduled to start in KwaZulu-Natal at the end of the month.

At the time of his meeting with Thales executives, Mbeki chaired a ministerial subcommittee responsible for approving the defence acquisition package.

Wasn't part of the probe

While the Sunday Times claimed the talks raised conflict-of-interest questions, national prosecuting authority spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi told the newspaper no evidence had been found of impropriety by Mbeki.

He had never been the subject of an investigation as this was not warranted, said Nkosi.

The Sunday Times reported that Mbeki had claimed last year he "could not recall" whether he had met Thint executives while he was deputy president.

- SAPA