Mbeki may face music over Arms Deal finally

There's an old saying that goes, careful who you tread on while you make your way to the top (or something like that). There's another saying that says, the higher you are the further you fall. Mbeki pushed his nemesis to the brink and now the knives are out for him and his cronies.

I would also have to guess that the sudden impetus to pursue the Arms Deal investigation has something to do with putting the soon-to-be-formed new political party, which will consist of Mbeki bootlickers, in a bad light. Of course, the 'evidence' will be tweaked to exclude any misdemeanour by Zuma so in the end it may all be a continuation of the internal power-play between the ANC factions.

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Parliament looks set to re-investigate the arms deal – and this time former President Thabo Mbeki may have to answer questions he has managed to avoid for years.

Later this month the deal will appear on the agenda of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) will be moving for a full blown probe.

DA spokesman on the arms deal and their representative on Scopa, Eddie Trent, told The Citizen he was delighted the deal had been placed on the agenda and said he planned to call people to testify before Parliament. Trent would not however release their names.

“That would be wrong of me. Among the witnesses I intend calling will be members of the Scorpions and National Prosecuting Authority, including people who have had serious threats made to their lives.”

Trent said he would like to call former members of Scopa who had knowledge of the deal to testify. This would almost certainly include Gavin Woods, the former chair of Scopa who resigned in protest over the deal and Andrew Feinstein – a senior ANC member of the committee who resigned in protest at his own party’s handling of the debacle.

Trent would not be drawn on whether he would consider calling Mbeki himself. Mbeki is believed to have had several secret meetings with French arms company Thint.