Sunday, March 16, 2008

That Arms Deal Again



Business magnate and senior ANC leader Tokyo Sexwale has called on President Thabo Mbeki to explain his involvement in the controversial multibillion- rand arms deal.
Sexwale made an impassioned plea to a hushed ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Friday for Mbeki “to take the ANC into his confidence” and explain whether there is any substance to the German investigation that has allegedly implicated Mbeki in arms-deal corruption
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The multi-billion Rand arms deal will haunt the ANC for years to come. This German investigation is being piled up on top of the French arms company Thint AND the British company BAE's involvement.




What do we know at this stage?


- Jacob Zuma possibly accepted bribes from Thint and his financial 'advisor' has been jailed for his role in procuring 'inducements.


- Tony Blair flew to South Africa on several occasions to meet with the heirachy of the ANC, including Mandela and Mbeki, to ensure that this overpriced deal for arms that SA did not need went through.


- Arms giant ThyssenKrupp has desperately lobbied the government — in particular Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla — to head off a German investigation into South Africa’s arms deal scandal.


- South Africa’s former ambassador to France, Barbara Masekela, has revealed that Mbeki met representatives of the Thint, which is the same company accused of bribing Zuma.


- Tony Blair and the British arms company, BAE, are accused of some very dodgy deals with the Saudi arms deal.


- All investigations into the arms deal have been corrupted or terminated by the ANC government, including the first one set up by Mbeki which the former ANC member of parliament, Andrew Feinstein, was conducting and which he covers in his book (written in the UK where he now lives.




What are the rumours?


- That Nelson Mandela took a large bribe that was deposited in his children's fund. This has been denied by the administrators of that fund. However there is a strong rumour that Mandela has TWO separate accounts with similar sounding names - the one is the true children's fund and the other is, to put it delicately, for his own children in the future.


- That Mbeki and several other senior ANC members got a BIG inducement paid by the consortium and brokered by Tony Blair.


- That the ANC party got a generous donation to their election account.




Zuma is just a minion in this scandal. However it did not stop Panorama from leading with the question 'Are you a crook?' There is no doubt that he is, but a fairly stupid one at that. What I would like to know is WOULD PANORAMA ASK THE SAME QUESTION OF BLAIR? Is is it OK to ask a semi-literate black man questions like that but not your own former Prime Minister?




Blair is up to his eyeballs in this arms scandal.




So is Mbeki.




So is Mandela.




And so are the rest of the ANC hierachy - corrupt from the day they were formed. Thambo died a very rich man - having collected all the donations to help the 'poor enslaved South African blacks under the horrific Apartheid regime' and kept for himself and other 'exiles' living a hard life drumming up support from the leftists. Mandela is enormously wealthy - far beyond what he would have earned as President and from his books, Mbeki is enormously wealthy, etc, etc.




Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt. The ANC, the British-French-German arms deal consortium, and Tony Blair.








UPDATE: A very interesting read on the whole arms deal at http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=87863&sn=Detail

UPDATE II: Further analysis of BAE's selection at http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=82518&sn=Detail

and http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=82519&sn=Detail



2 comments:

MathewK said...

The story of Africa eh, corruption and scandal. I wonder if the masses know about any of this, or even care.

KG said...

I doubt very much they care, MK. Making a living has to be a higher priority for most of them.