Arms deal probe a wild goose chase

Arms deal critic Terry Crawford-Browne. The writer argues that the arms deal probe is a waste of money and should be disbanded. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

Arms deal critic Terry Crawford-Browne. The writer argues that the arms deal probe is a waste of money and should be disbanded. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

Published Oct 15, 2014

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We can’t afford bling projects like the Seriti Commission; law enforcement agencies must go after those they believe to be guilty, says Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.

Pretoria - Commissions are an expensive enterprise. I gather from someone who ought to know, that senior counsel at a commission such as the arms deal or Marikana make as much as north of R25 000 a day, regardless of whether they sneezed in the direction of the person on the witness stand.

You can see from this figure why some questions take as long as they do to be asked – and even longer to be answered in a way that satisfies everyone.

Of course the lawyers will tell us they are just being thorough.

At the rate things are going, the arms deal commission could end up costing the country as much as the procurement of warships, helicopters and heaven knows what else was procured in 1999.

The state had at the last count spent close on R70 million on the commission and appeared likely to spend more.

The search for answers is proving expensive and the answers we are getting do not seem to justify the cost.

So far those who have appeared before Judge Willie Seriti have not covered themselves in glory.

Patricia de Lille who built a reputation outside of her original political home, the PAC, around being a fierce arms deal corruption whistle-blower, appeared before the commission and said nothing worth remembering.

It turned out that her by now famous dossier depended on entities who called themselves “Concerned ANC MPs” but could not even spell former president Thabo Mbeki’s name properly.

The section dealing with the Thyssen and Ferrostaal bid in De Lille’s dossier spells his first name as “Tabo”.

Another self-styled anti-corruption swashbuckler Paul Hoffman took Mbeki to task, but ended up with tears rolling down his cheeks.

Enter Don Quixote, otherwise known as Terry Crawford-Browne.

By this time, the situation had become desperate. It was no great wonder that some latched on to Crawford-Browne’s nonsensical submission that former MK head Joe Modise had Communist Party and fellow MK top dog Chris Hani killed because Hani did not like Modise’s friendship with arms manufacturers and called these preposterous claims “a bombshell”.

I appreciate that rivals on a career ladder might carry out despicable acts against their foes, but how on earth does Crawford-Browne expect any right- thinking person to believe that Modise had Hani killed to silence him for a crime that, according to Crawford-Browne, was going to be committed six years after the vile deed?

Crawford-Browne’s sympathisers have pointed out that he spent a lot of his money pursuing the arms deal corruption so he could not possibly be a crackpot.

Those who take him seriously after his outlandish claims, seem to think that just because someone is willing to lay down their lives – or cash – for a cause means that the cause is necessarily a wise one or properly considered.

People died for apartheid and others are ready to lay down their lives for, while others have spent their fortunes funding the Islamic State project that is leaving death and intolerance in its wake.

Crawford-Browne could very well have been describing his own testimony when he described De Lille’s dossier as “bizarre and of no substance”.

The lionisation of Crawford-Browne despite obvious gaps in his reasoning expose the malady in our national conversation that has decreed that there are permanent heroes and permanent villains. In this regard, once placed in a category, there is no room for redemption or for falling from grace.

So far, what we have heard from those opposed to the arms deal is that it was a waste of money; that South Africa could have used the money better to address its massive social problems.

We did not need an expensive commission to tell us that the arms deal was bad for the public purse.

Only 13 000 of the promised 65 000 jobs materialised. Other promised offsets never saw the light of day.

A few people became wealthy overnight. Media reports have previously said the interest alone amounted to R23 billion. Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik went to jail perhaps to appease the restless crowd and show that “something” was being done about the arms deal stink.

Overall, taxpayers were once again duped into what could only be described as a sophisticated con job, pulled by economic hit men. We have seen enough.

It is time that this expensive pantomime called “The Commission of Inquiry into allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity in the Strategic Defence Procurement Packages” came to an end.

There is just no wisdom in throwing good money after bad.

Normal law enforcement agencies must chase those they believe to be guilty of offences.

In the same way that those opposed to buying the arms argued, correctly, our country can ill afford to waste money on bling projects, we just cannot afford to enrich well-paid lawyers to go on a wild goose chase.

* Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya is executive editor of the Pretoria News. Follow him on Twitter @fikelelom

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