Under apartheid, the South African arms industry grew notoriously corrupt. Secrecy was the rule as the pariah government sought to maintain its regional dominance in spite of an international arms embargo. Prosecutors still are unraveling some of the allegedly self-serving deals, which involved complex webs of offshore bank accounts. Have members of the black-led government that took power in 1994 fallen victim to similar temptations? Not long after the country’s milestone political change, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu observed that the new black political elite had stopped the gravy train only long enough to climb on board. A budding scandal may bear him out.
Nobody has suggested that President Thabo Mbeki or his predecessor, Nelson Mandela, profited personally from the arms deals. But press reports and government sources implicate some ANC insiders in conflicts of interest. Defense Minister Joe Modise, the former commander of the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, retired from government in 1999 to lead a defense-contracting firm. Key management contracts reportedly went to companies whose boards included relatives by blood or marriage of Modise and his procurement chief. (Both deny any wrongdoing.) Critics charge that the structure of the arms deals invited influence peddling: in the name of black empowerment, foreign suppliers were required to form partnerships with local business people and to guarantee investments in the South African economy. “Officials go and establish companies either with their own silent involvement or with other people acting as their fronts,” says Patricia de Lille, a member of Parliament from the opposition Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, who has funneled corruption allegations to investigators. “Genuine companies lose out.”
Parliament is leading the charge. Just before adjourning in November, the National Assembly approved a sweeping investigation into the main post-apartheid arms-procurement deals, in which the government has borrowed heavily to order state-of-the-art Gripen fighter jets, Hawk trainers, frigates and armored vehicles. The move followed highly critical reports by the government auditor general and Parliament’s independent Public Accounts Committee. The watchdog group, which found that “undue influence” might have been applied in the selection of primary contractors, wants the investigation to include a special government anticorruption unit with powers to examine contracts and, potentially, move in court to challenge the arms package.
But only Mbeki can order this powerful unit, led by a judge, to carry out the investigation. His most vocal opponents in Parliament have demanded a decision by this week, before lawmakers meet to debate funding for the investigation. The pending decision is widely seen as a litmus test of Mbeki’s often-stated commitment to transparency. And whatever he decides, the investigation is another potential embarrassment for a leader whose unconventional view on AIDS hurt his international standing last year. “The public is expecting government to get to the truth of some serious allegations involving an awful lot of taxpayers’ money,” says Gavin Woods, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Mbeki’s chief spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the arms-procurement controversy. But at a Jan. 7 rally celebrating the ANC’s 89th birthday, the president declared: “The ANC will not tolerate corruption.” At a joint press conference last week, four cabinet ministers defended the integrity of the arms-procurement process.
More damaging revelations could lie ahead. Groups opposed in principle to the arms purchases have posted on the Web a long list of sensational but apparently untested corruption allegations against arms firms and government officials. De Lille and Crawford-Brown say they are merely passing along information from dissident ANC members who feel that former comrades have betrayed the anti-apartheid struggle. The spectacle offends defense-industry observers. Linden Burns, a spokesman for British-based BAE Systems, the world’s second largest defense contractor, says “pacifists” are “stirring up hysteria” to further their political agenda, even though they were consulted before the arms deals went through. He denies any wrongdoing on the company’s part. Still, he backs a thorough parliamentary review. “You need a defense sector that is beyond reproach,” Burns said. It’s an open question whether South Africa will have one.
