Pretoria - Arms deal-linked bribery allegations against Jacob Zuma - contained in a Sunday Times article - are “nothing new,” the Presidency said on Sunday.
“The Presidency has noted the allegations that have been repeated in the Sunday Times today (Sunday) seeking to link President Jacob Zuma to whatever wrongdoing is alleged by critics of the “arms deal,” said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj in a statement.
“There is nothing new in the allegations.”
The Sunday Times newspaper detailed allegations that in 2000, Zuma accepted a R500,000 a year bribe from Ajay Sooklal a 'fixer' for French Arms company Thales by using the code words “Eiffel tower”.
Zuma apparently signalled his acceptance by remarking during a meeting with Alain Thetard, the then-head of Thales subsidiary in SA Thint that “I see the Eiffel Tower lights are shining today”.
Thint is one of the companies linked to the country's arms-deal controversy. In 1997, Thint was awarded a multi billion rand contract to equip four new navy frigates with combat suites.
Asked by Sapa why an outright denial of the allegations was not declared in the Presidency's statement on Sunday, Maharaj said that the matter was before the commission investigating allegations of corruption in the 1999 multi-billion rand deal.
“That is where the matter will be interrogated. We are not engaging through the media on the matter. There is only one official enquiry.”
In the Presidency's statement, anyone possessing information they believed could assist the commission was advised to “forward that information to the commission so that it can be interrogated.”
Earlier, African National Congress national spokesman Zizi Kodwa dismissed the Sunday Times article as just “rumour-mongering” and “hearsay”.
Zuma is also president of the ANC.
“The story is not correct. It's about keeping suspicion on Zuma and the ANC.”
He denied an allegation detailed in the article that former ANC treasurer-general Mendi Msimang was given a cheque for one million euros by Thales.
“The ANC has never received such a donation.”
Kodwa said that such claims were only designed to create the impression that the ANC was “beholden to certain unscrupulous organisations, associations or companies.”
Nevertheless, he said the party was not perturbed about such tactics.
“We have never been worried. We are focused on our work. (Publishing the article) is to defocus us from the main work. This is a side show, a decoy”.
Kodwa had earlier also said that those who believed that they had pertinent information about the arms deal should go to the Seriti commission.
“People who are very loud in public; when they are faced with providing the commission with facts Ä they are unable to prove 1/8their allegations 3/8.”
The claims detailed in the Sunday Times emerged from transcripts of testimony provided in a confidential arbitration hearing between Sooklal and Thales over a fee dispute.
Zuma established the Seriti Commission of Inquiry in 2011 to probe alleged corruption that took place when government acquired, among other hardware, 26 Gripen fighter aircraft and 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainer aircraft for the air force, and frigates and submarines for the navy.
In April 2009, the National Prosecuting Authority dropped charges of corruption that had been levelled against Zuma in relation to the arms deal, citing a political conspiracy against Zuma which made it impossible to proceed.
Sapa