Programme News
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...
9 June 2014
(News)
Former deputy defence minister Ronnie Kasrils has dismissed evidence that he was responsible for decisions which had cost implications for the government with regards to the controversial arms deal.
Kasrils began testifying at the Seriti Commission of Inquiry today which is investigating allegations of fraud, corruption and irregularities in the multi-billion rand arms deal.
He is shedding light...
6 June 2014
(News)
Call for fairness at arms deal probe
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on Thursday called on the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the 1999 arms deal to be fair and consistent in treating witnesses.
Gina Snyman, for the LHR, told the inquiry sitting in Pretoria that Admiral Jonathan Kamerman's statement was not made available until he started testifying at the inquiry last month.
Kamerman was...
4 June 2014
(News)
Arms transactions are shrouded in corruption and secrecy and there is no way of having a clean trade in military weaponry. That is the assumption made just about everywhere in the world.
The 13-year-long wrangle over South Africa’s strategic weapons package, known simply as the arms deal, is an example of the suspicions surrounding weapons transfers. A judicial commission of inquiry is...
2 June 2014
(News)
On May 15, Pierre Steyn, former secretary of defence, made an appeal to the arms procurement commission:
“An unjustifiable decision was made to purchase British aircraft at considerable extra cost, which was unnecessary. The question is why this was done. One of the ways of finding the answer is to ask who benefited from these irregular and unjustified decisions,” Steyn said in...
29 May 2014
(News)
Prominent arms deal critics at the arms procurement commission say the latest round of delays over the acquisition of documents has effectively locked them out of the process altogether. Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie van Vuuren, all authors and critics of the deal represented by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on Wednesday accused the commission of making it impractical and impossible...