De Lille says 29 got away with dodgy ‘discounts’
● Arms-deal whistleblower Patricia de Lille says authorities let her down by failing to charge 29 prominent South Africans linked to the scandal.
The Cape Town mayor told the Sunday Times yesterday that her efforts to bring private prosecutions against individuals who received discounts on luxury vehicles had been stonewalled.
The discounts were arranged by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company on vehicles bought from sister company Daimler Chrysler.
EADS was a bidder in South Africa’s controversial R43-billion arms procurement programme when the discounts were given on Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Honda and Colt vehicles.
Of the 30 government officials and elected representatives who benefited, only former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni was convicted of fraud, for failing to declare the huge discount on his car.
Other recipients of discounts included a former chief of the South African National Defence Force, Siphiwe Nyanda, and Mandla Msomi, a former chairman of parliament’s public enterprises committee.
According to documents seen by the Sunday Times, the luxury cars retailed for between R186 000 and R352 000 at the time. Yengeni’s Mercedes-Benz ML320 retailed for R349 960 but he snapped it up for R182 663.
After a 17.26% discount on his MercedesBenz AMG E320, which retailed for R352 310, Nyanda paid R324 000. He also scored a 15.11% discount on a Mercedes-Benz S320, which retailed for R494 750; he paid R420 000.
Former air force chief Roelf Beukes forked out R222 000 for a Mercedes-Benz C240 after receiving a 6.64% discount. The car retailed for R237 800.
The documents also list a “Sexwale”, who bought a Chrysler Voyager in May 1999 and received a 12.23% discount. The car’s retail price was R282 548 and the buyer paid R248 000.
“The 29 others must still be charged,” said De Lille. “I still maintain that today. If they were ordinary people on the street who received discounts it would be fine. But they were all involved in the arms-deal process.”
De Lille said she travelled to Germany in 2007 and discovered that the CEO of Daimler Aerospace had pleaded guilty in 2001 to a charge of supplying “hugely” discounted cars to South African officials. De Lille was the leader of Independent Democrats at the time and an MP.
She obtained the case number and provided the information to Vusi Pikoli, then national director of public prosecutions. She said he declined to take action, even after she laid criminal complaints against the officials.
“I wrote to the prosecution in Germany and they said were prepared to share the information but only if it was requested by an organ of state. But Pikoli refused,” said De Lille.
“I applied for a private prosecution because it was clear that they were not going to do anything with the information.”
But private prosecutions were possible only with NPA permission and “Pikoli didn’t tell us what his intentions were. I got stuck there.”
In a letter to De Lille dated March 16 2007, Pikoli said her request did not meet the requirements to invoke the international treaties and legislation that allowed prosecutors to request information.
“However, should a situation arise in the course of our work, that may require the assistance of the German authorities or of any other country, we will proceed to make such a request,” the letter said.
“It should, however, be noted that in such circumstances, information received will be for our own use and can only be utilised for the purpose for which it was sought.”
De Lille said the Seriti Commission, which probed allegations of corruption in the arms deal, had “predetermined outcomes”. The NPA had approached her about three months ago and she had expressed willingness to testify against Zuma.
De Lille said she had no regrets about blowing the whistle even though she had paid a heavy price. “There was a lot of vilification and a lot of insults from people and even in parliament,” she said. “I always maintained that the truth will come out, even if it takes many years to do so.”