No evidence shows fraud, corruption in arms deal: S.Africa's Zuma

The Commission of Inquiry into a controversial arms deal has found no evidence that there were any improper motives or criminal shenanigans in the deal, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

"There was also no basis whatsoever for disbelieving the evidence submitted by the members of the Inter- Ministerial Committee in this regard," Zuma said.

The Commission concluded by stating that there was no room for it to draw adverse inferences, inconsistent with the direct, credible evidence presented to it, in respect of all material aspects of the Terms of Reference, Zuma said.

He was speaking of the release of the Report of the Commission of Inquiry Into Allegations of Fraud, Corruption, Impropriety or Irregularity in the Strategic Defence Procurement Package.

Zuma has been haunted by the Strategic Defence Procurement Package, known as the arms deal, for years. He set up a commission in the 2011 to investigate the multi-billion-rand arms deal of the late 1990s, when Thabo Mbeki was deputy president and later president.

The arms deal, initially estimated to cost 43 million rands, or about three million U. S. dollars, is believed to have escalated to billions of dollars to buy military equipment from Europe.

It is estimated that up to about 72 million dollars in bribes was paid.

Although several officials have been convicted for allegedly taking bribes to help land contracts, there have been calls to hunt some others off the hook.

Those convicted included Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who had a tender to supply part of the arms requirements.

Shaik allegedly was found to have facilitated a bribe for Zuma who was then the deputy president from a French arms company, which was part of the deal.

Serious allegations had been made by individuals in the media that investigators abroad had collected evidence of wrongdoing in the deal linked to some of the winning bids.

Zuma has denied connection with corruption in the deal.

In his Thursday statement, Zuma said the Commission points out that the large payments made to consultants gave an impression that the money may have been destined to decision makers in the arms procurement process and that they may have been bribed.

The fact that some of the consultants knew or had personal contact with some of the senior politicians in the government of the day, was cited as corroboration, said Zuma.

"On this point, the Commission states that not a single iota of evidence was placed before it, showing that any of the money received by any of the consultants was paid to any officials involved in the Strategic Defence Procurement Package, let alone any of the members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee that oversaw the process, or any member of the Cabinet that took the final decisions, nor is there any circumstantial evidence pointing to this," Zuma said.

He said the government had been of the view that any findings pointing to wrongdoing should be given to law enforcement agencies for further action. Enditem