Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2005-08-28 Reporter: Christelle Terreblanche Reporter:

Naidoo Threatens to Sue de Lille

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent
Date

2005-08-28

Reporter

 Christelle Terreblanche

Web link

 

Jayendra Naidoo, the chief negotiator for the government's arms deal package, is threatening to sue the leader of the Independent Democrats (ID), Patricia de Lille, over allegations of corruption in the arms deal.

Naidoo was one of six people whom De Lille, under parliamentary privilege in June this year, again accused of being tainted by alleged arms-deal corruption.

Naidoo's attorneys sent De Lille a letter late last month about their intent to pursue the unprecedented litigation after an earlier warning that they were investigating the matter.

De Lille is emerging as South Africa's most litigated public representative; last month she was also fighting legal battles on two fronts to retain two ID seats ahead of the floor-crossing period starting on September 1.

Cecil Burgess, an ID MP and De Lille's attorney, has since informed Naidoo that she will defend herself should he carry out the threat to sue; and reminded Naidoo's attorneys that De Lille's immunity under parliamentary privilege was "absolute" and "only subject to the rules of -parliament", while she had a "public duty" to raise such matters.

Attempts to get comment from Naidoo, now a businessman in Johannesburg, over a period of 10 days were fruitless. In correspondence to De Lille, he claimed that his integrity during the arms-deal negotiations could not be found wanting.

De Lille first made the allegations of arms deal corruption in the national assembly on September 19 1999, when she charged that even the highest office of the land, the presidency, was tainted by it, sparking a seven-year saga that led to the trial for corruption and fraud of Schabir Shaik, the financial adviser of then-deputy president Jacob Zuma in June.

A week after Zuma's axing, on June 21, she again raised the issue under parliamentary privilege, naming others alleged to have been tainted, including Naidoo. She based her allegations on what became known as the "De Lille dossier", evidence of alleged irregularities in the acquisition of the arms, obtained from still unnamed "concerned ANC" sources. The dossier has formed an integral part of subsequent investigations into the arms deal and became a record of the court during the Shaik trail.

Under parliamentary privilege, De Lille insisted that others named in the dossier in terms of alleged corruption should now also be investigated and charged. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should pursue the enemies of the state within the context of the arms deal," De Lille said.

"These names include, on the most wanted list in South Africa, Ron Haywood, Chippy Shaik, Richard Carter, Ntsiki Mashimbye, Vivian Reddy and Jayendra Naidoo.

"The next step is for the enforcement agencies to go back to the De Lille dossier, from where we have now seen two successful prosecutions - Tony Yengeni (the former ANC chief whip) and Schabir Shaik - and the axing of the deputy president of the republic," De Lille said. Naidoo's attorneys based their threat on an allegation that De Lille repeated her "defamation" in three radio interviews on June 22 2005.

But her attorney said she had refused to mention the names of any people in the interviews, "notwithstanding the fact that she was encouraged to do so by the presenters". The threats of litigation was therefore "unreasonable and unnecessary".

"It was one of the presenters who mentioned the name of your client. Our client did not encourage nor influence the presenter to do so," he argued in a letter sent this week.

Burgess said that as an MP his client was protected by the constitution "in respect of freedom of speech in the national assembly and its committees".

With acknowledgements to Christelle Terreblanche and the Sunday Independent.