Arms deal commission gets under way

key witnesses

This week, Judge Willie Seriti (right), who chairs the commission of inquiry into SAs R70 billion arms deal, released a timetable of witnesses who will testify before the commission. The hearings start on August 5 and will be held at the Sammy Marks Conference Centre in Pretoria. Seritis eriti s fellow commissioners are judges Thekiso Musi and Francis s Legodi

Former Form defence minister mi r Mosiuoa Lekota Lekot L ota

Lekota was appointed defence minister in June 1999. His late predecessor, Joe Modise, was instrumental in the arms deal, and was implicated in corruption and nepotism

Former ormer me trade and industry dustr minister in Alec Erwin E

As minister of trade and industry, Erwin was the chief proponent of the offsets scheme, whereby arms companies would have invested more than R100 billion in South Africa
Erwin argued that these companies would have invested more in the country than what government paid for the weapons
Erwin is expected to be grilled about the multiple failures of the scheme, including the investment of only R10 billion by arms companies

Former president Thabo Mbeki

Mbeki was deputy president at the time the arms deal was initiated. He chaired the Cabinet subcommittee that approved the arms deal
In 1995, Mbeki travelled to Germany to assure that countrys politicians they were still in the running for the frigates contract. This was after a cheaper bid by Spanish shipbuilder Bazan was already recommended to Cabinet
Between 1997 and 1999 Mbeki met with the bosses of French arms rm Thales in Paris. A Thales subsidiary won the tender to provide the technology for the frigates. Mbeki is yet to explain the purpose of these meetings
Mbeki made the decision that former Judge Willem Heaths special investigating unit should not be part of the joint government investigation into the arms deal
Former National Intelligence Agency spy Paul Madaka, who died in a mysterious car accident in 2007, claimed Mbeki took a R30 million bribe from Germanys MAN Ferrostaal. Mbeki and the company denied this. The company led the German consortium that won the tender to provide submarines to the navy
*Estimated costs to SA of these purchases by 2011

Lekota will probably be questioned about changes that were made to the report by governments joint investigation committee into the arms deal
Arms deal activist Richard Young has long argued that Lekota and his former Cabinet colleagues softened the report to protect ANC politicians

what did we buy for r70 billion?

3 submarines from Germany for R12 billion

26 Gripen ghter jets from Britain and Sweden for R30 billion 4 for R14.4 billion*
frigates from Germany

30 helicopters from Italy for R3.6 billion

24 Hawk trainer jets from Britain for R10.7 billion

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