Damning report to rattle ANC

President Jacob Zuma. Picture: Etienne Creux

President Jacob Zuma. Picture: Etienne Creux

Published Oct 19, 2011

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President Jacob Zuma will release the report of the Donen Commission of Inquiry into the involvement of South Africans in the Iraq oil-for-food programme, a document believed to contain potentially damning evidence against top ANC members, including Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Minister for Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale.

However, Zuma’s office announced on Tuesday that he had decided to delay the release of the report to give those named in it an opportunity to read it first, his spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said.

Among those implicated in the scandal was the controversial businessman and ANC benefactor Sandi Majali, whose death in a Joburg hotel late last year have since raised questions.

People subpoenaed to testify before the 2006 inquiry included Motlanthe, now being seen as a possible contender for the ANC presidency and Sexwale, who recently testified in defence of Zuma’s possible nemesis, league president Julius Malema, at his disciplinary hearings.

Immediate reaction to Zuma’s decision to make public the report – kept under wraps since November 2006 – included speculation that it would suit him politically by helping neutralise opponents in the run-up to the party’s elective conference in Mangaung in December next year.

Similar speculation followed Zuma’s decision last month to set up a fresh commission of inquiry into the arms deal scandal.

In both instances, however, Zuma has been under pressure from leverage applied through the courts.

Motlanthe, former minerals and energy department director-general Sandile Nogxina and former Strategic Fuel Fund director Riaz Jawoodeen, all reportedly accompanied Majali to Iraq, while Sexwale was called as a witness as a director of a company that had traded under the oil-for-food programme.

The decision to release the Donen Report “on or before” December 7 followed an urgent Western Cape High Court application by Independent Newspapers to compel Zuma to release the report in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

Political analyst, Professor Adam Habib, said on Tuesday night that he would have been sceptical about the decision if the matter had not been before a court. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a battle going on,” he said.

Set up in 2006 by then president Thabo Mbeki and chaired by Michael Donen, SC, the commission’s terms of reference were limited to investigating specific allegations in a UN report that South African companies were among those paying kickbacks or surcharges to Saddam Hussein’s regime, in breach of the sanctions to which the country was a signatory.

The Presidency was careful to stress that it “was aware of the potential misuse of the contents of the report”.

“We wish to caution that the comments made in the report about individuals must not be elevated to findings of fact as these were interim and untried comments.

“Those who were caught up in the subject matter of the inquiry did not have an opportunity to deal with their alleged involvement fully. In addition, it must be emphasised that the Donen Report clearly established that the conduct of the individuals from South Africa affected by the report does not constitute any offence under South African law,” it said.

Maharaj, who said he had read the report, stressed that Donen had not found that anyone had broken South African law.

Motlanthe and Sexwale were not the only people named in it, and it was to be expected that people, especially opposition parties, would speculate that Zuma’s intentions were more to do with his political concerns than recognising the public’s interest in the report, he said.

“I warned that people were going to accuse the president (of taking) this decision because he wants to deal with whoever.

“He has been accused of concealing information, of refusing to release the report.

“It is not true that he had decided against releasing the report and (Minister in the Presidency) Collins Chabane made that clear in his affidavit (before the court).It was a matter before the court, (Zuma) had to look at it.

“Nobody has been found guilty (by Donen). It is a matter of public interest.” Maharaj suggested Zuma was in a Catch 22 situation: “If he releases it, he’s damaging political opponents. If he doesn’t, he is creating a secret state.

“Those who are surprised by this decision are viewing Zuma from a particular paradigm – and then when the dots don’t connect, they can’t make sense of it.”

However, the decision to publish meant those named required “the courtesy” of reading the report ahead of it being released for them to have time to prepare their responses to it.

DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said the decision should be welcomed, although he questioned its timing. “Steps taken by government to improve the free flow of information must be applauded. But it is crucial that information is released into the public domain for the right reasons, and not as a means to fight internal political battles.”

Freedom Front Plus MP Anton Alberts said the report was to be released nearly 30 months after Zuma entered office. “It is well-known that political opponents in the ANC of President Zuma… could be negatively implicated by the report given their involvement in the negotiations and the setting up of the oil-for-food contracts. The question can… be asked whether the Donen Report, just like the commission of inquiry into the arms deal, has become part of the internal struggle in the ANC.” - Political Bureau

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