Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sits inside a vehicle at a location given as Bangkok, Thailand, in this screengrab from a video released to social media on 25 June. Picture: Wikileaks via X
The Assange case has brought to world attention the vile conduct of the US, British and also Swedish governments, and their diabolical complicities in unleashing war crimes upon the international community.
It is now also past time to expose BAE/Saab and the collusion of the British and Swedish governments in the arms deal scandal of unleashing corruption in SA, and the consequential betrayal of our hard-won constitutional democracy. Well before the UN arms embargo against apartheid was rescinded in 1994 the British war business and government were already peddling warships and warplanes that SA did not need, and could not afford. It is estimated by Transparency International that 40% of global corruption can be ascribed to the arms trade.
In 1997 the SA Air Force confirmed that the BAE/Saab Hawk and Gripen proposals were unsuited to its requirements and were also too expensive. In response, BAE/Saab stepped up the pressure, and in 1998 transferred bribes to the ANC via Swedish trade unions. As Andrew Feinstein recorded in his book, After the Party, the ANC funded its 1999 election campaign with donations from arms companies.
The arms deal affordability study in August 1999 warned the cabinet that the risks were so severe that the government [and thereby the country] could face “mounting fiscal, financial and economic difficulties”. The study recommended that the Gripen proposal be cancelled, or at least deferred. However, these warnings were overruled by the president Thabo Mbeki, who insisted that the arms deal offset “benefits” would override those risks.
Lord Denning’s famous legal maxim “fraud unravels everything” was reaffirmed in Australia in 2018, in England in 2019 and also by SA’s Supreme Court of Appeal in 2020, together with the principle that the fraudster should not profit financially from his fraud. Reparations of $8.7bn from the British and Swedish governments would be an appropriate restitution for their deliberate fraud and betrayal of SA’s hard-won liberation from apartheid by unleashing the arms trade destruction of corruption.
In turn, SA can return the BAE Hawk and BAE/Saab fighter aircraft, which have proved totally useless anyway. Will President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Treasury rise to the challenge?
Terry Crawford-Browne Via email
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Exposing arms deal scandal
Julian Assange has at last been freed after exposing US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq ("Julian Assange to be freed after pleading guilty to espionage charge", June 25).
The Assange case has brought to world attention the vile conduct of the US, British and also Swedish governments, and their diabolical complicities in unleashing war crimes upon the international community.
It is now also past time to expose BAE/Saab and the collusion of the British and Swedish governments in the arms deal scandal of unleashing corruption in SA, and the consequential betrayal of our hard-won constitutional democracy. Well before the UN arms embargo against apartheid was rescinded in 1994 the British war business and government were already peddling warships and warplanes that SA did not need, and could not afford. It is estimated by Transparency International that 40% of global corruption can be ascribed to the arms trade.
In 1997 the SA Air Force confirmed that the BAE/Saab Hawk and Gripen proposals were unsuited to its requirements and were also too expensive. In response, BAE/Saab stepped up the pressure, and in 1998 transferred bribes to the ANC via Swedish trade unions. As Andrew Feinstein recorded in his book, After the Party, the ANC funded its 1999 election campaign with donations from arms companies.
The arms deal affordability study in August 1999 warned the cabinet that the risks were so severe that the government [and thereby the country] could face “mounting fiscal, financial and economic difficulties”. The study recommended that the Gripen proposal be cancelled, or at least deferred. However, these warnings were overruled by the president Thabo Mbeki, who insisted that the arms deal offset “benefits” would override those risks.
Lord Denning’s famous legal maxim “fraud unravels everything” was reaffirmed in Australia in 2018, in England in 2019 and also by SA’s Supreme Court of Appeal in 2020, together with the principle that the fraudster should not profit financially from his fraud. Reparations of $8.7bn from the British and Swedish governments would be an appropriate restitution for their deliberate fraud and betrayal of SA’s hard-won liberation from apartheid by unleashing the arms trade destruction of corruption.
In turn, SA can return the BAE Hawk and BAE/Saab fighter aircraft, which have proved totally useless anyway. Will President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Treasury rise to the challenge?
Terry Crawford-Browne
Via email
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
KATE THOMPSON DAVY: Hacker hero or mercenary, Assange represents a turning point
Julian Assange to be freed after pleading guilty to espionage charge
UK court gives nod to WikiLeaks founder Assange’s bid to appeal against ...
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.