Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Analysis: Nhlanhla Gasa’s arms deal & other connections

No fear No Favour No recourse.....................WE ARE AT WAR








(C) Billy Cox 
(C) Billy Cox
(C) Billy Cox


(C) Billy Cox






Prominent businessman Nhlanhla Gasa was brutally murdered and his body dumped in the Tugela River in KwaZulu-Natal less than a week ago. It also turns out Gasa, called a “Zuma associate” by newspapers, had a long business relationship with arms deal consultant Fana Hlongwane. Daily Maverick investigates. By MANDY DE WAAL.



Judge Willie Serari -  Daily Maverick




Terry Crawford-Brown  -  M & G



Nhlanhla Gasa - the wealthy businessman who was stabbed multiple times and whose body was disposed of in the Tugela River in Kwazulu-Natal - was a former business associate of arms deal beneficiary and consultant Fana Hlongwane. The pair had shares in, and were directors of, an arms deal offset company called Hivex that was funded by British multinational aerospace company, BAE Systems (also implicated in the arms deal).
Gasa’s corpse was discovered in the Tugela by residents of Newark, situated some 75 kilometres away from Umhlanga, where the Durban businessman lived. Locals called the police after spotting the body in the water. Police later found Gasa’s Jaguar “burnt beyond recognition” metres away from where his body was located.
A SAPS spokesperson said blood was found at Gasa’s Umhlanga house, and added that this indicated the businessman had been murdered at his home and then taken up the north coast to the Tugela River where his body was dumped. The police said no valuables had been taken from Gasa’s home.
Police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge told the Independent on Sunday that Gasa was at home alone at the time of the attack and that there was no sign of forced entry. “A trail of blood was found in the house which led to the garage, suggesting that he was dragged after he was murdered,” Mdunge told the weekly newspaper.
Sixty-three-year old Gasa and Hlongwane were connected through the mutual business interest of Hivex, which was established through offsets from South Africa’s strategic defence procurement, signed in 1999, and which has become known since then as the notorious ‘arms deal’.
Hlongwane was close to Joe Modise, a democratic SA’s first minister of defence and one of the founders of the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe. In the nineties Modise appointed Hlongwane to the board of Denel, the state-owned defence and aerospace company, and made the man his advisor.
In a paper for independent research entity the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, arms deal researchers and authors Paul Holden and Barnaby Pace, together with ex-ANC MP-turned-activist Andrew Feinstein, write about how the arms deal undermined South Africa’s nascent democracy. The paper – called Corruption and the Arms Trade: Sins of Commission - reveals that Hlongwane had significant influence with Modise, and acted as his gatekeeper. Despite being on a government salary, this didn’t stop Hlogwane from receiving significant payments and bonuses from BAE, which the UK Serious Fraud Office suspected flowed to politicians and government members linked to the arms deal, write Holden, Pace and Feinstein.
Mail & Guardian reported in 2010 that Hlongwane was paid “commissions” of R200 million for his part in securing the sale of military aircraft to the South African government. The payment was, in part, made to one of Hlongwane’s companies, called the Ngwane Defence Group. Former MK field commander and Defence Force chief Siphiwe Nyanda was installed as the CEO Of Ngwane Defence, which was launched with a big to-do at Ysterplaat Airforce Base in Cape Town by then-Transport Minister Jeff Radebe. Soon afterwards, Ngwane Defence was presenting to the parliamentary defence committee and romancing the department of defence.
Nyanda got a luxury house out of the deal and made millions through other government contracts before heading back into public life (from 2009 to 2010) as a disastrous minister of communications, which earned him the moniker ‘minister of luxury’. Currently Nyanda is Zuma’s personal representative in Parliament.
But let’s get back to Hlongwane & Gasa, and their arms deal offset project called Hivex. A requirement of the arms deal was that ‘offsets’ were made to encourage economic development and investment in select sectors. These offset projects were documented and monitored by the Department of Trade and Industry, while the efforts were approved by the acquisition entity of the Defence Force, Armscor.
The main product that Hivex brought was an HIV therapy that was to be trialled in SA, with a view to being commercialised. Hivex was financed to the tune of some R24 million by BAE Systems following the London based defence company’s successful arms deal bid, which involved the supply of Gripen fighters and Hawk Lead-in Fighter Trainers. Both Hlongwane and Gasa were shareholders and directors of Hivex (Daily Maverick has the CIPRO share register), while Gasa was a shareholder of a section 21 company called EMF Research International (in this instance EMF was short for electromagnetic field).
A look at the Hivex website shows that the therapy claims to be an HIV treatment that is safe, strengthens the immune system, is low cost, and has no known side effects. But the therapy was also labelled a scam and came under fierce attack from AIDS activists, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), for offering no scientific evidence to back up its assertions.
In 2010 TAC successfully got an order for Hivex to take down its website (and social media pages) because they were misleading to the public. At the time the Aids activists said Hivex was promoting its therapy as a “pioneering radical treatment for people with HIV” and that the company claimed people on the treatment “were 5.7 times less likely to need hospital treatment, antiretroviral drugs, or die”.
Despite the order, Hivex’s website is still online. In 2011 Nathan Geffen, author of Debunking Delusions and editor of Quackdown, warned that Hivex was a pseudoscience, and cautioned patients to be sceptical of claims made by the company. Another article on the medical scam-busting site entitled Electromagnetic Quackery states Hivex claims to use electromagnetism to treat HIV.
“Their website states, “Hivex Treatment targets proteins in the HIV virus. It is intended to disable the virus so that the virus stops causing the death of other cells ('apoptosis'), allowing white blood cells (lymphocytes) to increase.” No credible regulatory body has confirmed that Hivex is an effective treatment for HIV. In fact, no studies on the efficacy of Hivex for the treatment of HIV in human beings have ever been published. In addition, the proposed mechanism of Hivex treatment is scientifically implausible,” the article reads.
“Patients are charged R1,000 for the electromagnetic Hivex treatment. After that they are encouraged to use a ‘detox’ mixture that costs R200 per month,” Quackdown states, and adds: “For Hivex Limited to offer Hivex treatment as a treatment for HIV before any peer-reviewed trial results proving efficacy have been published and before the World Health Organisation or any regulatory authority has approved the device for this purpose, is unethical and irresponsible.”
In 1998 Gasa registered a company with Cipro called ‘Dr Nana Dlomo’. At the time of his death Gasa was still an active member and director of this company. It is not known what this entity was used for, but its business address is registered in Durban North.
Meanwhile Hlongwane is keeping a low profile and trying hard to evade the Seriti commission of enquiry into the arms deal. The billionaire bachelor was supposed to appear at the public hearings, but late last year Judge Willie Seriti, who is chairing the effort, told media he was having a hard time finding Hlongwane.
Perhaps Seriti should have looked in the two-storey, five-bedroomed home Hlongwane escapes to in Zimbali, or the arms deal man’s Hyde Park mansion in Johannesburg. The latter home is said to have been built on a 4,000m² property purchased in 2000 by Tsebe Properties, founded by a former chairperson of BAE Systems. This home sports a cinema and “a bedroom the size of a medium house”.  Another good place to find Hlongwane could be an exotic car showroom, seeing as the man has a taste for über luxury cars. Independent reported Hlongwane’s fleet is said to include a Lamborghini Murcielago, a Bentley Azure, two Ferraris and a Porsche Cayenne.
In reporting on Gasa’s death this past week, the media made mention of his former positions with Transnet, Umgeni Water and Absa; but there was scant news of his previous activity with the Vulindlela group of companies. Daily Maverick has documentation from Cipro which shows Gasa was a shareholder and director of Vulindlela Holdings, Vulindlela Investments, Vulindlela Health, and remained a shareholder of Vulindlela Properties at his time of death.
Vulindlela featured prominently in the fraud and corruption trial of Schabir Shaik, and was reportedly the ANC’s choice for a BEE component for the Durban Point Waterfront Development. A R1.8-billion project, Durban Point, is the result of a partnership with the eThekwini Municipality and a troubled Malaysian conglomerate called Renong (a company with strong ties to that country’s finance minister and once Malaysia’s most influential listed company).
Shaik tried to muscle in on the deal between Vulindlela and Renong by getting the Malaysians to displace the ANC favourites with his own company, Nkobi Holdings. Shaik’s bid failed and the billion rand development went ahead between Vulindlela and Renong.
The Vulindlela network of companies benefited from a 1997 government decision to enable Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), like the 2001 Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital project said at the time to be worth R4,5 billion and set to run for 15 years. This PPP was meant to enable the Durban-based medical facility to deliver “world-class service” through the installation of “state-of-the-art medical, information and management technology equipment”.
A non-executive director for Digicore, Gasa was also the head of a BEE company called Western Breeze; was active in a company called Gasa and Associates; and involved in iSeluleko Consulting, which benefitted from a sustainability contract associated with the 2010 World Cup. At the time of his death Gasa was also still active in a company called Notha Construction.
On Sunday, City Press reported that a family spokesperson, Louis Seeco, announced the police had already made an arrest in connection with the murder. “According to what police now say, there is one person who has been arrested,” Seeco told City Press. “There is a likelihood that there are another two suspects, who they are looking for. That is what we know at this stage,” Seeco said.
The police did not confirm the arrest, while Seeco added that the motive behind the murder was a mystery to Gasa’s family. Gasa is father to four children including Mbali Gasa (crowned Miss South Africa in 1997 and married to Khaya Ngqula, the embattled former head of SAA); and Noni Gasa (a fashion writer and television host on SABC 3 and M-Net).
A memorial service will be held for Gasa on Wednesday 3 April at an Anglican church in Durban, while his funeral will take place on Friday 5 April in Ulundi. DM


Read more:
Original photo by IOL.



Daily Maverick


Seriti faces court over arms deal queries, says advocate




Judge Willie Seriti could be taken to court soon if he fails to give explanations for the commission's failure to summons the ANC and its records.


Advocate Paul Hoffman of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa is still waiting for responses to 13 questions he sent to Seriti, including why he chose not to summons the ANC.
If Seriti fails to respond to Hoffman's questions, and if his client, former banker Terry Crawford-Browne, cannot persuade the commission to subpoena the documents and records he needs to give evidence, Hoffman said they would have no choice but to litigate.
"In this commission, it is notoriously well known that the ANC has been implicated in the alleged bribe-taking and one of its former MPs, Andrew Feinstein, has widely publicised the allegation that the ANC's 1999 election campaign was paid for out of the proceeds of the bribes from the arms procurement deal," said Hoffman. "In these circumstances, it is irrational to decline his request as the commission has done to obtain access to the documents before the hearings commence on August 5. All of the complainant witnesses will be pre-judiced if they are not given access to the financial records of the ANC and to its documents pertaining to its internal post-Polokwane investigation into the arms deal."
Although the litigation is planned as a single court action, Hoffman said Seriti would be faced with a request for a court order compelling him to answer the questions, and the commission will also be drawn into legal processes to compel it to send out subpoenas to the ANC and to access its records and documents.
Dragged into the scandal
Hoffman represented Crawford-Browne in his court battle that forced the hand of President Jacob Zuma – whose name has also been dragged into the scandal – to set up a commission of inquiry into corruption allegations regarding the 1999 multibillion-rand arms deal.
The commission put out a press release this week that hit out at Crawford-Browne's "persistent attempt" to prescribe to the commission, and said it was in possession of massive documentation implicating many people.
"The public must understand that, before the information is properly interrogated in the upcoming public hearings, the commission cannot be party to any exercise to canvass it in the public domain and bandy around the names of those implicated," it stated.
Asked whether Seriti was planning to answer Hoffman's 13 questions by March 22, commission spokesperson William Baloyi said: "Unfortunately, I can't respond as the chairperson is already out of office and he will [only] be available on Monday."
Earlier this week, Kate Painting, one of the two legal researchers who accompanied Seriti on recent overseas fact-finding trips, resigned. Although Painting could not be reached for comment, the Mail & Guardian was informed by sources close to her that she will return to a job as a researcher for the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal, where she first met Seriti.


DAILY MAVERICK


Arms commission blind to the facts



Researchers argue that there is ample evidence to suggest that the ANC benefited from the arms deal and that the party must testify at the commission



When President Jacob Zuma was reluctantly forced by legal action to appoint the commission of inquiry into South Africa's notorious arms deal, it was one of those moments that politicians believe they can control, but which often develop a life of their own beyond the machinations of the powerful.
Despite its difficult birth, the commission could play a pivotal role in the development of our country's young democracy if it lays bare the gargantuan amount of evidence about the deal and recommends appropriate legal action against those who are shown to have behaved inappropriately.
If it proposes steps to recoup monies forsaken on contracts shown to have been won corruptly, as is apparently allowed for in the contracts, then it will be remembered as the protector of our Constitution, the champion of transparency and accountability in government and the ultimate protector of ordinary citizens and taxpayers.
If, however, it fails to perform this crucial task without fear or favour, it will become the latest in a long line of whitewashes that will ultimately cost South Africa about R70-billion on weaponry that was never really needed and is woefully underutilised.
Haphazard
The commission did not get off to the best of starts. It took months to set up the most basic infrastructure, was haphazard in its approach to local and international meetings and its initial communication with potential witnesses was confused. None of this is surprising, given the enormity of its task and its relatively limited resources.
Then, in January, a senior official of the commission resigned, alleging there was a hidden agenda to discredit those who have been whistle-blowers on the deal, or those who have investigated its seedier underbelly, who are among the first to have been called to give evidence.
Most recently, in a letter to witness When President Jacob Zuma was reluctantly forced by legal action to appoint the commission of inquiry into South Africa's notorious arms deal, it was one of those moments that politicians believe they can control, but which often develop a life of their own beyond the machinations of the powerful.

South Africa withdraws from CAR





South Africa’s controversial military mission in the Central African Republic has been sized down: of the several hundred South African troops that were stationed there previously, fewer than 20 remain. By KHADIJA PATEL and DE WET POTGIETER.



There were more than 200 soldiers present at the height of the battle for Bangui last month, compared to just 18 at the moment. 
General Jean Felix Akanga, head of the regional peacekeeping force Fomac, confirmed to The Wall Street Journal’s Alexis Flynn that just a handful of South African soldiers were still in Bangui. Akanga, a Gabonese national who leads 500 Fomac troops from Chad, Cameroon, Gabon and Congo, said: "There is only a little number [of SA troops in Bangui].”
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF), however, has refused to confirm whether indeed a withdrawal has taken place, reiterating instead that it is still awaiting instructions from government to withdraw or reinforce.
SANDF spokesman Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said he could not confirm statements from a military official not affiliated to the SANDF.
The Daily Maverick’s own sources have in the meantime confirmed that a withdrawal of South African troops from the Central African Republic is underway. At least 168 South African soldiers were flown back to Pretoria on Friday and a further 100 arrived home later this weekend (this includes the reinforcements sent to Bangui as the fatal firefight kicked off).
Certainly the activity around the Waterkloof Air Force Base this weekend suggested that there was some sort of scale ferrying taking place.
Large, chartered cargo planes took off and came in for landing at all hours of the day and night. Judging by the noise during take-off at two o’ clock on Friday and Saturday morning respectively, the planes must have been part of the Russian-made fleet of Antanov cargo planes usually chartered by the SANDF to ferry its equipment and troops into Africa.
Our sources put the number of South African troops left in Bangui at 18.  
What remains to be explained now is the reluctance of the SANDF to confirm that South African troops have been withdrawn from the Central African Republic. Mabanga’s reticence on the matter may point to a genuine ignorance of what is actually going on and a disconnect between him and the senior officials of the defence force, but it is also consistent with the attitude the defence force has assumed since the first reports of South African casualties in Bangui emerged.
Last Thursday, following the handover of the remains of the 13 soldiers killed in combat in Bangui, neither the ministry of defence nor the SANDF took questions from the media, preferring instead to deflect enquiries to a press briefing on Tuesday.
It is unclear whether the 18 troops who remain in Bangui will stay there or also be withdrawn. If indeed these 18 troops remain, it could be reasonably construed that these soldiers form part of the SANDF’s original mission in CAR: Operation Vimbezela, which consisted of between 20-30 South Africans. Soldiers who were deployed as part of this operation were there to provide military training to the CAR army.
The Memorandum of Understanding between South Africa and the Central African Republic that led to the creation of Operation Vimbezela is not invalidated by the rebel takeover. Instead, the new regime inherits the agreements made with its previous incarnation. So if indeed these 18 soldiers do remain in CAR, it could be an attempt by the Zuma administration to indicate a willingness to work with the new regime in Bangui.
CAR’s new leader, Michel Djotodia, does not appear to have much regard for South African military assistance, however.
In an interview with Reuters this weekend, Djotodia said he would seek aid from former colonial power France and the United States to retrain the ill-disciplined army, which was easily overrun by fighters from his Seleka rebel coalition. He also indicated that he would review mining deals that had benefited South Africa – and its ally, China. 
The deposed president Francois Bozize had awarded the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) rights to explore for oil at Boromata in the country's northeast, near the border with Chad.
A South African firm, DIG oil, is also prospecting in the southeast of the country, near the town of Carnot.
"I will ask the relevant ministers to see whether things were done badly, to try to sort them out," Djotodia said, when Reuters quizzed him about resource licences awarded to Chinese and South African firms by Bozize.
But the takeover has been condemned internationally and the US has reiterated that it has not recognised Djotodia as the leader of the country. The African Union has also sought to condemn the coup by suspending CAR from the body and imposing sanctions on Seleka leaders, including the new president.
As the fallout from the loss of South African lives in Bangui continues, defence analysts say the allegations of the initial deployment of South African troops to CAR was not problematic. “The mistake was sending a further 200 troops this year.”
The battle of Bangui has forced scrutiny on South African foreign policy, which seeks to position the country as a paragon of democracy on the rest of the continent. The ambitions couched in South African foreign policy, however, cannot easily be matched by a defence force on a shoestring budget. If anything, the tragic loss of life in Bangui may force the good people at the Department of International Relations and Co-Operation to temper the ambitions of South African foreign policy.
Meanwhile, South African troops have already been transferred to a newly authorised United Nations peacekeeping brigade in the restive eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. M23 rebels have warned that the United Nations have “chosen to make war” through the brigade.
"This is the war option that the United Nations is exercising," the political leader and spokesperson of the M23 rebel movement, Bertrand Bisimwa, is reported to have said.
And the M23 will certainly be taking note of reports of an under-equipped South African force in CAR.
But even as the resources and readiness of the South African National Defence Force for more combat are questioned, soldiers returning from Bangui, speaking in their personal capacities, quite apart from the cagey statements of SANDF officials, insist that South African troops actually did well in Bangui.
As one soldier freshly returned from Bangui noted to his friends on Facebook this weekend, “The men who were with me, salute! I know you did what is expected from a soldier. Nothing less, nothing more.”  DM
Read more:
Photo: South African soldiers take part in a joint patrol with Central African soldiers in the streets of Bangui January 8, 2013. REUTERS/Luc Gnago


Daily Maverick  De Wet Potgieter


'New soldier death toll report an insult to SA Govt'

File photo of the Swedish-made Gripen aircraft
SANDF soldiers carry the bodies of their colleagues killed in the Central African Republic on 24 March 2013. Picture: Alex Eliseev/EWN
 | 40 minutes ago
JOHANNESBURG - The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Thursday reports by a French news agency about the number of South African soldiers killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) is an insult to government.

France's official news agency RFI reported that rebels in the CAR said the number of South African soldiers who died in battle last month ranges between 36 and 50.

The official death toll from government was 13.

The SANDF’s Xolani Mabanga has dismissed these claims.

“Anybody who has a figure more than 13 is more than welcome to bring the bodies of our personnel to the SANDF.”

Meanwhile, the South African National Defence Union (SANDU) has welcomed the decision to withdraw all South Africa’s troops from the CAR.

President Jacob Zuma attended an emergency summit in Chad on Wednesday where a decision was taken not to recognise the rebel government in the CAR.

This means South Africa’s agreements with that country effectively fall away.

Whatever troops remain in the CAR will now be withdrawn, although most of the soldiers have been brought home already.

SANDU National Secretary Pikkie Greef said they were satisfied with the decision.

“SANDU is delighted to hear about the withdrawal of the troops. This is what we’ve been calling for over the past week. We must however caution that it does not mean our troops will not be deployed there again in the future.”

(Edited by Tamsin Wort) 
EWN


COMMENTS BY SONNY


Who would have wanted Gasa dead?

Judge Willie Serati had to interview Gasa before during or after the ARMS DEAL COMMISSION.

President Zuma and his comrades would probably have been mentioned and/or implicated.....?

Terry Crawford-Browne lawyers would have had  a field day/month/year cross examining Gasa.

SOUTH AFRICA CANNOT WAIT FOR THE OUTCOME OF THE INFAMOUS "SA ARMS DEAL!!

FRANCE HAS NOW ANNOUNCED THAT THE AMOUNT OD SA SOLDIERS KILLED IN CAR STANDS AT

36 TO 50 AND NOT 13 AS SUGGESTED BY PRES ZUMA.

Now all SA's decommissioned planes are being taken out of 'mothballs' and flown to Uganda to join in the fight.

Who is the despot now?

















Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)