Programme News
15 June 2014
(News)
This is cell 14, into which warders smuggle everything from shopping bags full of hard drugs to juvenile prisoners for inmates to rape.
Graphic details of what happens inside the 168m² cell in Leeuhof Prison, outside Vereeniging, were revealed to City Press in 300 text messages and 80 cellphone pictures by inmate and fraud accused Eugene Viljoen.
Viljoen – who for three months shared...
13 June 2014
(News)
Former finance minister Trevor Manuel has denied telling former African National Congress (ANC) MP Andrew Feinstein possible wrongdoing in the 1999 arms deal would not be uncovered.
Mr Manuel was testifying on Thursday before the Arms Procurement Commission into fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity in the government’s acquisition of arms worth R29.9bn.
Mr Manuel was cross-...
13 June 2014
(News)
The odds are stacked against the truth in the Seriti Commission of Inquiry probing allegations of fraud and corruption in the multi-billion rand arms deal.
That’s the view of one of the deal’s main critics, Hennie van Vuuren.
Van Vuuren has criticised the performance of former government ministers who have testified so far, and the way the commission has been conducted.
I think...
12 June 2014
(News)
Former finance minister Trevor Manuel says he was convinced that the arms package selected by the South African National Defence Force was affordable and within the government’s fiscal envelope.
Mr Manuel, who was minister of finance from 1996 to 2009, was testifying before the Arms Procurement Commission on Wednesday, which is investigating allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or...
11 June 2014
(News)
Lekota rejects assertion that ANC benefited from arm deals
Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota gave evidence at the arms deal commission on Wednesday morning. He had been defence minister for six months when the R70-billion arms deal was signed, in 1999.
On Wednesday, advocate Anna-Marie De Vos, for Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), asked Lekota if he knew whether the ANC had benefited from the deal...
11 June 2014
(News)
At a meeting in August 1998, government apparently decided to buy expensive Hawk trainer jets instead of cheaper options available, as part of the arms deal packages, according to minutes prepared by Chippy Shaik.
Government has always maintained the Hawk planes were the best option available, so it was prepared to pay the extra amount. Now another set of minutes from that meeting has emerged at...
11 June 2014
(News)
Minutes in arms deal missing
It was a massive project, but there were some gaps in the ministers’ filing.
The government’s chief negotiator for the 1999 arms deal, Jayendra Naidoo, told the Arms Procurement Commission that “the negotiation process was conducted with great intensity and professionalism by the departments and officials participating. The result was a consensus...
11 June 2014
(News)
Human rights lawyers take on Judge Willie Seriti
Lawyers for Human Rights took Judge Willie Seriti on when he tried to prevent questions relating to claims that the offsets from the multibillion-rand arms deal were a total failure.
The offsets were promises that the arms companies made to invest in businesses in South Africa in return for which their offerings were given preferential status....
10 June 2014
(News)
Ministers due to testify at the arms commission will not answer fraud and corruption allegations but could be asked about a mysterious report.
The ministers who will testify at the arms procurement commission this week will not answer questions on fraud and corruption alleged to have plagued the arms deal. Yet all hope is not lost, as the mysterious affordability report of 1999, which...
9 June 2014
(News)
In early 1998, about a year-and-eight-months before the arms deal contracts were signed, former minister of defence, Joe Modise, made a strange, albeit throwaway remark about a mysterious R6-billion investment that South Africa expected would come its way.
The Arms Procurement Commission is furiously trying to find out what this investment was for. Yet judging by Friday’s proceedings, any...