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BLOCKED: Shadow minister of defence David Maynier says certain government officials should come under scrutiny. Picture: Sam Clark

AS President Jacob Zuma’s commission of inquiry into the arms deal gears up for business, two key critics of the weapons procurement scandal are upping the ante.

The Sunday Independent has learned that the DA’s David Maynier intends to call on Zuma to extend the already broad terms of reference to include a focus on alleged attempts by officials to stymie past investigations.

And civil society crusader Terry Crawford-Browne moved in the new year to secure expert advice on the legality and constitutionality of the government’s justification of the weapons procurement programme of the late 1990s on the basis of presumed economic benefits via arms deal offsets.

Crawford-Browne this week told The Sunday Independent that if legal experts found the government’s justification of the deal on the basis of offsets was flawed from the start, he would move to have the entire arms deal repudiated and declared “unfixable”.

“At issue then for the commission’s consideration,” Crawford-Browne argued, “will be a public and tangible apology to the people of South Africa by way of cancelling the contracts, returning the warships and warplanes, and repudiating the foreign loan agreements – signed by (then Finance Minister Trevor) Manuel – as fraudulent.

“The financial consequences will then fall to the British and German taxpayers who have guaranteed these loans, which… run until 2019.”

NULL AND VOID: Arms deal campaigner Terry Crawford-Browne is out to prove the original arms deal fraudulent. Picture: Jeffrey Abrahams

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The basis of Crawford-Browne’s intervention lies in Section 217 (1) of SA’s constitution. The subsection requires that all government procurements are conducted “in accordance with a system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective”.

It was also on this basis that Crawford-Browne, in 2010, approached the Constitutional Court to rule on the basic legality of the arms deal. This was after Crawford-Browne was told by then President Kgalema Motlanthe in December 2008 there was no need for any inquiry.

It was in the fallout from Crawford-Browne’s Concourt action, as the court deadline loomed, that in September 2011 Zuma announced a commission of inquiry.

Explaining his current initiative, Crawford-Browne noted that, as approved by Parliament, the rationale for entering into the Strategic Defence Procurement Programme was “indisputably, R30 billion spent on armaments would generate R110 billion in offsets to create over 65 000 jobs” – none of which has eventuated.

Crawford-Browne also highlights the fact – exhaustively canvassed in researcher Paul Holden’s recent book, The Devil in the Detail – that “every cabinet minister was repeatedly warned by civil society representatives that offsets are internationally notorious for corruption”. In particular, he drew attention to then “Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel”, who, Crawford-Browne charges, “then abused the powers of public office to squelch investigations into the bribes and corruption that the arms deal unleashed. In so doing, they were either criminally naive or criminally complicit.”

As revealed in a series of articles the performance of weapons manufacturers in terms of offset obligations has been dismal at the very least, and the process riddled with corruption exposed in investigations in Sweden, Germany and Britain. At the same time the role of the Department of Trade and Industry in awarding offset credits – often multiplying actual investment a hundredfold to arrive at industrial participation calculations – has come into the spotlight.

As Crawford-Browne noted, three of the six terms of reference drawn up to guide the commission of inquiry relate to questions arising from the National Industrial Participation Programme and its equivalent in the defence sector, the Defence Industrial Participation Programme.

Maynier’s planned intervention is, likewise, fitted with a dangerous sting in the tail. As the commission’s terms of reference stand, Maynier said, there was a “major gaping hole” in its failure to focus attention on alleged moves by “key government officials… to obstruct… a proper investigation.”

Maynier said he would move to ensure Judge Willie Seriti’s spotlight fell on a “strong suggestion that a major part of the investigation into the arms deal was cut off at the knees by Menzi Simelane” – as director-general in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, and as head of the National Prosecuting Authority.

“Even Hawks boss General Anwa Dramat implied… that Menzi Simelane was a major roadblock to a proper investigation into the arms deal,” he noted.

In the letter, Dramat highlights the abandoning of a preservation order by Simelane (as Justice director-general) secured on the assets of arms deal entrepreneur Fana Hlongwane in Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Jersey and the UK, a move which “effectively strangled a major part of the investigation”.

Maynier also charges that Simelane was personally responsible for squashing several requests for mutual legal assistance by, among others, British and German law enforcement agencies.