WeeklySA_AdminSLIGHT: Young dismissed probe as ‘a farce of the most odoriferous and pungent kind’
By Monk Nkomo
A witness who testified at the arms deal inquiry, Dr Richard Young, once described the late former President Nelson Mandela as a grand thief.
This is contained in a report that was submitted by Judges Willie Seriti and Hendrik Musi, who chaired the inquiry. The findings and recommendations of the two judges’ report have since been set aside by the Full Bench of the Gauteng High Court.
During his testimony, Young was referred to one of the statements on his website which read: “This Commission is a farce – but not a funny one ha ha one. It is a farce of the most odoriferous and pungent kind. Something that reminds me of something that came out of the anuses of my neighbours’ pigs when they invaded my farm last year.’’
Another statement on his website read: ‘’It all started when Mandela decided to do the arms deal without any real or proper consideration of the future needs of South African National Defence Force (yes, the SANDF actually belongs to all of us and not Mrs Sisulu).
Everything was designed around giving one third of the proceeds of the Arms Deal to the ANC party and political wigs. Invariably the more expensive options were chosen or the equipment was not needed at all.’’
Asked to comment he told the Commission: ‘’Again, I will not say. I intended to implicate him personally and alone. What I am saying is my theory, my grand theory is that the Arms deal was put together, in the way that it was, in order to benefit many connected individuals and party organisations such as the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the ANC Woman’s League and others’’.
In their report Seriti and Musi submitted that Young had admitted that his evidence was based on what he had read in newspapers and other publications. No facts or proof were submitted.
Young also implicated Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, who was former Deputy President and former United Kingdom Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair ‘’to corrupt the arms deal package in regard to BAE’’. He further stated that the German government conspired with the South African government for the German companies to be awarded the corvette contract. He was informed about this conspiracy by the late Richard Charter.
In another of his statements on his website, Young said: “Indeed once Mandela and Mbeki had decided to whom to award the corvette contract, Mbeki summoned Chief of the SA Navy, Robert Claude Simple Anderson and Kamerman to a meeting. There he instructed them how the corvette project was to happen’’.
According to the Commission’s report, Young said he was told this by someone.
In their papers, Seriti and Musi said Young failed to cross-examine former President Thabo Mbeki about these allegations when he (Mbeki) testified at the Commission.
