DA wants Ngcuka to investigate Mbeki on arms act

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Leon says the Mbeki's response on the issue is not satisfactory

March 31, 2004, 13:08

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has asked Bulelani Ngcuka, the national director of public prosecutions, to investigate an alleged violation by President Thabo Mbeki of the National Conventional Arms Control Act.

The DA refers to the incident when the government sent arms to Haiti on a Air Force plane just before Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's former president, was deposed.

http://www.sabcnews.com/politics/the_parties/0,2172,76971,00.html


DA asks Ngcuka to probe Haiti arms row
Lindiwe Vilakazi, head of legal and executive services in the Presidency, had responded to the DA's concerns on behalf of the President in a letter.

In the letter Vilakazi said: "It was not the intention of the legislature that each time (an) aircraft belonging to the defence force leaves the country or, for that matter, transports persons or goods, it should be on the president's authority and with the consequential reporting responsibility of the president to Parliament".

"Advocate Vilakazi's defence of the president's actions is evasive on all counts," Leon said.

"That is simply an attempt to avoid the question. The issue is that the president has not told us or the nation, and perhaps cannot tell us, who ordered the shipment of arms to Haiti, and the employment of the SAAF aircraft, and under what legal authority."

DA asks Ngcuka to probe Haiti arms row