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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Oil for Food |
| 2005-10-31 |
| The National Leon seeks inquiry into SAâs role in UN oil-for-food scandal Karima Brown DEMOCRATIC Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon has called on President Thabo Mbeki to appoint a judicial inquiry into allegations made in a United Nations (UN) report on its oil-for-food programme. âIt is essential that South Africans learn the truth about the oil for food scandal,â Leon said. His call has been met by silence from government and the African National Congress (ANC) since the findings of the report became public on Friday. Mbeki is also under pressure to âcome cleanâ and explain his role in how controversial businessman and known ANC benefactor Sandi Majali secured crude oil from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The UN devised the scheme so Saddam could sell oil to buy food while sanctions were in force. The DA will today ask Mbeki about his role in the affairs uncovered by the UN report. It accuses Majali of manipulation, and details how he used the names of ANC high-ups, including Mbeki and party secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, to obtain crude oil from Iraq through his oil trading company, Imvume. âPresident Thabo Mbeki did the right thing when he fired a deputy president (Jacob Zuma). The DA strongly supported the move. âWe now equally strongly urge Mbeki to come clean with SA about the ANCâs involvement in the Oilgate and oil-for-food scandals,â Leon said. He said the UN report made the âseriousâ allegations of âdishonesty and illegal conductâ by South African companies. It had previously been disclosed that Imvume was âestablished as an (ANC) frontâ and was used to enter into the oil trade as a means of collecting money for the ANCâs election coffers, Leon said. The report comes amid attempts by Mbeki to act against graft, but the continued silence from government and the ANC on the scandal is likely to dent the presidentâs credibility as a corruption buster According to the report, throughout the programme SA and Iraq were âactively developing business and political tiesâ. âAt the time government claimed its only objective was to avoid war, yet it can now be credibly argued that it was actually a desperate attempt to protect a close friend as well as lucrative business contracts,â Leon said. The report details business trips between SA and Iraq involving Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad and Iraqâs then-foreign affairs minister Tariq Aziz. The Freedom Front Plus also called for an inquiry to the matter. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |