AN EVIDENCE leader was prompted to move along during the questioning on Friday of former deputy defence minister Ronnie Kasrils before the Seriti Commission of Inquiry.

"I think we are dealing with peripheral issues. Let’s go straight to the crux of the matter, to the evidence that Mr Ronnie Kasrils must give," commission chairman judge Willie Seriti said.

He was addressing the commission’s evidence leader Simmy Lebala in Pretoria. Mr Lebala was asking Mr Kasrils about his role as deputy under former defence minister Joe Modise.

Judge Seriti continued: "We all know what a deputy minister is. Now we are dealing with SDPP (strategic defence procurement package). Let us go to the crux of this matter."

When Mr Lebala began questioning Mr Kasrils, he took him through his curriculum vitae and his sworn statement.

"Your paragraph two says prior to your appointment you were deputy minister for defence to (former) minister Joe Modise. Under whose presidency was that?" Mr Lebala asked.

"That was under the presidency of the late president Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela," he replied.

In the sworn statement, Mr Kasrils states that as a deputy minister at the time of the 1999 arms deal, he was only a deputy minister and therefore not a member of Cabinet as the Constitution stipulates.

Mr Lebala asked Mr Kasrils to explain his working relationship with Mr Modise.

"You state that the post of deputy minister did not entail being privy to all matters handled by the minister. You have said you had a good relation with Minister Modise. Does this mean you were not privy to all matters handled by him?" Mr Lebala asked.

"Were you allowed to express yourself?" Mr Kasrils said he was.

He said his relationship with Mr Modise dated back to the liberation struggle. However ministers were generally busy and did not brief their deputies on all the issues they dealt with.

President Jacob Zuma appointed the commission in 2011 to investigate alleged corruption in the multibillion rand deal.

The government acquired, among other hardware, 26 Gripen fighter aircraft and 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainer aircraft for the air force, and frigates and submarines for the navy.

Sapa

With acknowledgement to Business Day.

The SANDF did need some new equipment.

But it mainly bought the wrong stuff.

In almost every instance the MoD bought what Joe Modise and Chippy Shaik wanted and not what the SANDF wanted.

Certainly the SAAF were then happy with its 54 Cheetah Cs that it had just taken into service and had another 15 years (1997 to 2012) years of service life before two pre-planned upgrades could have been activated to take it until 2022. The Ecuador will probably be using our abandoned Cheetah Cs until 2022.

The SAAF had decided on a two-tier training system from Pilatus to Cheetah C so the Hawk 100/120 was not required.

In any case the SAAF preferred the Aermacchi MB339 over the Hawk 100 if there had to be a three-tier system.

The SAN preferred the Bazan 590 B frigate over the Meko 200AS while HDW 209 submarine did not win on the unmoderated scoring in terms of best military value.

There were some shenanigans involving the competition for light utility helicopter between Agusta and Bell involving Chippy Shaik and Llew Swan, but I have been advised that the SAAF actually needed medium lift helicopters more than light utility helicopter in terms of the 2007 to 2009 Defence Review and Force Design.

So it is clear that the DoD under Joe Modise and Ronnie Kasrils bought the wrong stuff.

The reasons for not buying the right stuff are political and redistributive ones and not military ones.