Mbeki: Damned if you do, damned if you don't

Linda Ensor: President Thabo Mbeki was yesterday in danger of being snared in a legal quagmire related to the arms deal, which has plagued his term of office from the start...Erwin said the allegations were “highly prejudicial” to the government, the president and to cabinet ministers.

NVDL: I saw Erwin on the news yesterday saying that the ST article brought the standards of journalistic reporting to a new low. Given his obfuscations about Eskom, I'd be inclined to doubt whether his concept of 'standards' are worth the paper they're written on, or even bear repeating.

clipped from www.businessday.co.za The newspaper reported that a UK risk consultancy had said Mbeki received a kickback from MAN Ferrostaal, which led the German Submarine Consortium and which won the contract to sell three submarines to the SA Navy, for more than R6bn. The newspaper said that R28m of the kickback was channelled into ANC coffers and R2m was paid to Zuma. Should Mbeki sue the newspaper, the case would open up the controversial R30bn strategic arms acquisition to the microscopic legal scrutiny it has eluded for the past decade. However, if Mbeki decides not to act against the newspaper it could be seen as deeply incriminating.