According to a report in The Citizen, President Thabo Mbeki held at least two meetings with controversial French arms company Thomson CSF, now called Thint, at which the arms deal was discussed.

It says details of at least one of these meetings are revealed in documents filed in the Durban High Court as part of the prosecution of Schabir Shaik. It says these documents were recently used by arms deal investigators to confront former Ambassador to France, Barbara Masakela, who is believed to have facilitated meetings between the French and Mbeki. More damning, says The Citizen, is an internal Thomson-CSF memo dated November 27, 1998. This is titled ‘Meeting with Mr T Mbeki’ and shows the ANC, and not the tender board, were the main people the company wanted to please. It reads, in part: ‘Thint already privately had access, six months ago, to your president T Mbeki.’
Full report in The Citizen


Meanwhile, Jacob Zuma and his co-accused, French arms company Thint, hit back hard this week in response to the State's replying affidavits that seek a postponement of his corruption trial. In the latest set of affidavits, Zuma has asked the Pietermaritzburg High Court to separate his corruption trial from the prosecution of Thint, if the court fails to grant him a permanent stay of execution. Zuma says trying him separately from Thint would expedite his long-delayed prosecution and simplify the three-way legal wrangle between himself and Thint, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), reports Business Day. ‘In this regard, a separation of trials from (Thint) will be sought, with my trial to proceed first. This will greatly simplify the disputes between the parties and the acceptance of a realistic timetable,’ Zuma said. He also wants the NPA’s ability to conduct further investigations that could lead to additional charges against him to be curbed. He is currently in court on the basis of a 'provisional indictment', with the state indicating that this could be amended to include charges of fraud and tax evasion.
Full Business Day report


Zuma accused the State of a deliberate strategy to convict him in the public eye and then sentence him to dismissal as Deputy President, according to a report in The Mercury. That, he argues, was the result of the State’s decision not to prosecute him in August 2003 and to prosecute only his ex-financial adviser Schabir Shaik.
Full report in The Mercury


Also, a number of startling allegations have been made by Pierre Moynot, MD of Thint in his second affidavit submitted to the Pietermartizburg High Court. The Mercury reports that these include the fact that former Minister of Justice Penuel Maduna, despite submitting an affidavit critical of Thint's bona fides, took a job for the French company in September last year. And that, the local arm of giant French arms manufacturer Thales never approached the NPA to try to cut a deal before the Schabir Shaik trial, but that it was the NPA that had approached them via Tony Georgiades, the former husband of former SA president F W de Klerk's wife, Elita.
Full report in The Mercury


Meanwhile, Thales has a new headache. A report on the Mail & Guardian Online site says a dossier that the arms company thought French investigators had closed has been opened again, with a South African connection. The affair concerns the sale of warships by France to Taiwan. This deal had been at the centre of a judicial investigation in Paris since 1997. French industrialists were suspected of having paid hefty commissions to government agents from Taiwan and China, and of having organised a system of paybacks to French political figures. A new witness has suggested the funds might have been paid through a subsidiary of Thales in SA.
Full report on the Mail & Guardian site