President Mbeki denies arms deal bribe allegations
The Presidency has dismissed a Sunday newspaper report implicating the President of corruption in the arms deal as a “hotch-potch recycling of allegations” that have from time to time been peddled against the government’s Strategic Defence Procurement Package. A Sunday Times report alleged that President Mbeki had received a bribe of R30 million from the German shipbuilding company MAN Ferrostaal, to ensure it would receive a submarine contract in the arms deal.
“The Presidency would like to place it on record that President Mbeki has never at any stage received any amount of money from MAN Ferrostaal,” a statement released by the Presidency said.
Speaking at a Free State Presidential Imbizo on Sunday, President Mbeki said he had a clear conscience about the multi-million Rand arms deal.
He said the story was not true and there has been a lot of mischief around the defence acquisitions.
The Presidency has called on anyone who has evidence that the President received bribes to report it to the law enforcement agencies.
“The Sunday Times or anyone who has evidence that the President or anyone else received bribe[s] in the procurement process should, as we have emphasised before, approach the law enforcement agencies,” the Presidency said.
It reiterated that according to the findings of the joint investigation into the Strategic Defence Procurement Package, no evidence was found of “any improper or unlawful conduct by Government.”
In their joint-statement on 15 November 2001, the investigators (the Auditor-General, National Director of Public Prosecutions and the Public Protector) said: “No evidence was found of any improper or unlawful conduct by the Government.
“The irregularities and improprieties referred to in our report, point to the conduct of certain officials of the government departments involved and cannot, in our view, be attributed to the President or the Ministers involved in their capacity as members of the Ministers’ Committee or Cabinet.”
There were therefore no grounds to suggest that the Government’s contracting position was flawed. - BuaNews
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