President Jacob Zuma was again accused by the opposition on Wednesday of covering up the involvement of senior ANC officials in a scandal that saw companies pay bribes to the regime of Saddam Hussein to secure contracts under the United Nations Food-for-Oil Programme. Zuma said in reply to a parliamentary question that he would not extend the lifespan of the Donen Commission, which probed the role of South African companies in the so-called Oilgate scandal, nor would he release its findings.
He said local companies which allegedly paid illicit surcharges to the Iraqi regime could not be prosecuted under South African law, and therefore the final recommendations of the commission "will be academic because no individual or companies will be held criminally liable". "I have been advised that in terms of our domestic law these nationals cannot be prosecuted."
The Donen Commission's report was handed to then president Thabo Mbeki four years ago and detailed the alleged knowledge senior officials had of shady oil deals with Iraq. The Sunday Times reported last year that the commission had fingered Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale. It said the commission found that Motlanthe, who was ANC secretary general at the time, was privy to "material information" relating to businessman Sandi Majali's deals with the former Iraqi regime. The newspaper reported that the commission also cast doubt on a submission by Sexwale that he did not know that Imvume Management, of which he was co-director, had paid money to the Iraqi government.
Zuma said that instead of extending the probe, he would ask the justice minister and the South African Law Reform Commission to review the Donen Commission's report, along with the international Independent Inquiry Committee that probed the abuse of the programme, and consider changing the law. He said that before he considered releasing the findings of the commission, "the adverse findings made against certain subjects" should be presented to them first to allow them to comment.
In 2005, the Independent Inquiry Committee found that Iraq received $1.8 billion in illicit surcharges and kickbacks and that the UN had failed to properly oversee the programme. More than 200 companies were involved in these illicit payments, severely undermining the aims of the programme, which allowed Iraq to sell oil in order to buy food and medicines for its citizens. The Donen Commission was then tasked with probing the truth of UN allegations against Imvume and a number of companies including Glaxo Wellcome SA, Montega Trading and Omni Oil.
The probe was also referred to Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana after it was alleged that PetroSA, through Imvume Management, funnelled R11 million of public money to the ANC before the 2004 election. Mushwana said the transaction was between the ANC and Imvume - which were private entities.
Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said Zuma's reasons for not releasing the report were "spurious". "The alleged involvement of top ANC officials... means that the truth about yet another instance of power abuse and gross misconduct by the ANC government will, in all likelihood, be hidden indefinitely from public scrutiny."
Trollip said the commission had been set up in the public interest, but by refusing to release its findings "the president has deemed the interests of those implicated in the report to be more important than the interests of the public. "This is absurd. It seems to have evaded the president, and more worryingly the state legal advisors he consulted, in constructing this reply, that a commission of investigation and a criminal investigation are two completely separate forms of inquiry. That the commission will lead to no criminal charges against subjects found to be guilty of misconduct, bears no relevance to whether the commission should be allowed to conduct an investigation."
Source: IoL
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