11 Jul 2006: ISS Today: Timing of German Arms Deal Bribes Revelation Queried
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Fresh allegations of underhand dealings in the controversial multi-billion (US) dollar South African arms deal have gained momentum with revelations in the past weeks edition of German news magazine Der Spiegel that German authorities are in the possession of a letter naming a South African politician who allegedly received a R140 million (US$ 20 million) kickback in return for a lucrative ship building contract.
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Commentary
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South African President Thabo Mbeki was in Berlin on Friday to officially launch the logo for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. At last the ‘beautiful game’ will come to Africa. This was an opportunity to focus world attention on Africa’s future role in world football at a time that all African teams had long since vacated their Berlin hotel rooms. However, preceding Mbeki’s visit to the German capital were allegations of murky ties between German industry and top South African politicians. According to news reports, German investigators have been probing the possible payment of bribes by German companies involved in the sale of war ships and submarines to the South African navy as part of a controversial multi-billion dollar arms deal package in 1999.
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Mbeki’s spokesperson reportedly hit back from the Gambia last week claiming that “The intentions behind all these moves so close to the President`s visit to Germany cannot escape anybody with an average IQ.” Was this co-incidence or conspiracy? From the outset the South African arms deal has been mired in such controversy. It has seen a number of political heavyweights implicated in corruption, including former Deputy President Jacob Zuma (his corruption trial is scheduled to kick-off on 31 July 2006) and former African National Congress (ANC) Chief Whip Tony Yengeni, who is appealing a guilty verdict of fraud. Jacob Zuma’s supporters have frequently hinted that the charges are part of a broader conspiracy intended to knock Zuma out of the race for the Presidency of the ANC and probably South Africa. A number of important recent court judgements involving Yengeni and Shabir Shaik (former financial advisor to Zuma) have found factual proof of influence peddling and corruption in the arms deal.
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The investigation in Germany may be the beginning of a lengthy process, but it is an important step when seen as an attempt by a highly industrialised country to tackle the involvement of their companies in bribe payment. It is only when corporate head offices are probed in Hamburg, Beijing, Washington and Paris that we will see some of the grand corruption taper off in African capitals.
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It also points towards the lesson that developing countries can learn from the recent South African experience: tread cautiously when international corporations come bearing contracts for new weapons. Such contracts are often laced with bribes that have become part of the global conventional arms industry. The practice of large fees paid to ‘agents’ (middlemen and women) continues despite the criminalisation of bribe-payment in many industrialised countries. If soccer is the ‘beautiful game’, then the arms trade is all too often the embodiment of a truly ‘dirty business’. It is time that both corporations and politicians involved in such practices are shown the ‘red card’. We need to applaud all efforts to investigate and where necessary prosecute corruption, if only because it promotes a spirit of fair-play, making nonsense of those who claim ‘conspiracy’ when implicated in corrupt practices.
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Addressing the audience at the official FIFA World Cup hand-over on Friday night, Mbeki exclaimed to applause, “Kommen Sie nach Afrika 2010” (Come to Africa in 2010). The vast majority of Africans would no doubt support this sentiment – with one proviso - please leave your bribe money at home.
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Hennie van Vuuren & Nobuntu Mtwa
