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THE presidency on Sunday rejected renewed allegations of arms deal corruption involving President Thabo Mbeki, and denied he received any bribes from contractors.

The denial came among demands from all main opposition parties for the government to appoint an independent judicial commission of inquiry to test the claims.

To date, the government has refused to appoint any judicial commission into the arms deal.

“The presidency has noted today’s front page article of the Sunday Times headlined: ‘Mbeki took R30million and gave some to (ANC President Jacob) Zuma’,” a presidency statement said yesterday.

“The report which purports to be a result of a six months’ investigation is nothing but a hotch-potch recycling of allegations that have from time to time been peddled against the government’s strategic defence procurement package.

“This time the Sunday Times outdoes itself by placing a spurious allegation in the public domain, (in other words that) President Thabo Mbeki received a bribe of R30million from MAN Ferrostaal.

“The presidency would like to place it on record that President Thabo Mbeki has never at any stage received any amount of money from MAN Ferrostaal.

“The Sunday Times or anyone who has evidence that the President or anyone else received bribe(s) in the procurement process should, as we have emphasised before, approach the law enforcement agencies.”

While all South Africans awaited the evidence, which the paper should submit to the law enforcement agencies, the Sunday Times was challenged to explain :

l The name of the United Kingdom specialist risk consultancy which authored the report on which the paper supposedly based its article and the reason for their concealment of the consultancy’s name;

l Its reliance on a “leading Central European manufacturer” which commissioned the consultancy to investigate the purported “questionable business practices” of MAN Ferrostaal to fend off MAN Ferrostaal’s attempted “hostile takeover bid against it” ; and

l Its “grotesque allegation that Zuma acted as Mbeki’s ‘front man during the arms deal negotiations’, particularly in the context of the court process currently under way.

“Whereas the article acknowledges that it is based on allegations, the paper’s editorial (“The arms-deal truth must out, once and for all”) openly attaches ‘truth’ to the allegations.

“The unstated premise of the editorial is that the allegations are ‘truthful’ because the Sunday Times says so. Rational South Africans will surely find this logic flawed.

“By readily regurgitating known and spurious allegations – supposedly after six months of a laborious investigation – while at the same time concealing easy-to-find information which casts doubt on the credibility of its article, the paper appears to be pursuing an agenda that only it can explain.”

Earlier yesterday, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille urged Mbeki to appoint an independent commission of inquiry into the allegations and explain his alleged involvement.

“If the President facilitated a R2million bribe for Jacob Zuma and R28m for the ANC, it would show that the ANC is rotten to the core,” she said.

It would explain why Mbeki and the ANC had “blocked every attempt to investigate the arms deal”.

“President Mbeki must now explain himself to the nation in a televised address without delay .

“Whether he admits or denies the allegation, the President must appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, headed by a judge of impeccable reputation and with full powers of subpoena, to fully investigate every aspect of the arms deal,” Zille said.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said he was “disgusted” by the allegations, but not surprised. “ Can we trust the ANC leadership – both Mbeki and Zuma? Mbeki and the ANC have been asked many times to appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

“It explains why the newly-elected lynch mob that controls the ANC is reluctant to trust the judiciary, because they are aware of these shady dealings and schemes,” he said.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille also called for an independent inquiry.

The latest allegations of corruption were in line with information contained in the original “De Lille Dossier,” she said. “It is high time that all the allegations in the De Lille Dossier are investigated by an independent judicial commission of inquiry that can lead to the prosecution of all those implicated in the arms deal.” — Sapa