Press Statement by :

Economist Allied for Arms Reduction - South Africa

17 October 2003

ECAAR-SA
3B Alpine Mews
High Cape
Cape Town 8001

021-465-7423
ecaar@icon.co.za 

Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso has this afternoon established two court dates for ECAAR-SA's litigation for cancellation of the arms deal. She had yesterday confirmed previous instructions from the Judge President that the matter should be resolved before the end of this year. She has today set down 17 November 2003 and 17 February 2004.

The first hearing is in respect of the International Offers Negotiating Team and Financial Working group papers awarded to us by order of Judges Andre Blignault and Dennis Davis back in March this year. Only on 8 September, after we filed an application that the President and the Minister of Finance should be declared in contempt-of-court, did we finally receive 28 pages of the more than 643 pages of documents to which we are entitled.

The IONT and Financial Working group papers submitted to the cabinet were "voluminous" and in very considerable detail warned the government of the fiscal, economic, financial and social risks of the arms deal. The 9 page executive summary which we attached to our original application in November 2001 noted:

The proposed armaments procurements...create a set of important and unique risks for government. Analysis of these risks suggests...a situation in which government could be confronted by mounting, economic, fiscal and financial difficulties.

The Joint Investigation Team report tabled in Parliament in November 2001 also confirmed the content of that assessment and its implications, and declared it to be a "professional and very precise document that could be relied on". The government has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent these documents and the warnings they contain from being made public to South Africa's citizens. Most painful of all to ECAAR-SA, was the necessity of dismissing our former senior counsel because of collusion to frustrate the Blignault/Davis judgment in an attempt to throw the case.

We are confident that the combination of these documents with the foreign loan agreements signed by the Minister of Finance prove conclusively that the government recklessly and unconstitutionally went ahead with the arms deal. Government's senior counsel conceded in court in March that these agreements are authentic. He also drew the court's attention to the default clauses through which the Minister has ceded control of South Africa's economic and financial policies to European banks and governments and the International Monetary Fund.

It is disappointing that consideration of the main case has been delayed until February 2004. However, today's hearing hopefully puts an end to the government's stalling strategy, and establishes a court schedule to which we can work towards cancellation of the arms deal early next year.

Terry Crawford-Browne

With acknowledgements to Terry Crawford-Browne and ECAAR-SA.