Explosive arms deal documents

Former President Thabo Mbeki, the man who was in overall charge of the arms deal, favoured arms merchants known for their tendency to pay bribes and then agreed to pay inflated prices for equipment that the military simply did not want.

Damning documents obtained by The Citizen last week show that Mbeki ignored his own experts who had ruled that a rival Spanish warship offered better military value than the exorbitantly expensive German product the Navy eventually bought.

The contract should therefore have been awarded to the Spanish who convincingly won the frigate contract using the procurement formula the Department of Defence had agreed upon.

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