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Mac Maharaj Hits Back Over Corruption Claims

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Mac Maharaj Hits Back Over Corruption Claims Legalbrief | your legal news hub Tuesday 28 September 2021 Mac Maharaj hits back over corruption claims Presidency spokesperson Mac Maharaj has denied ever being involved in corruption and bribery. A report on the News24 site notes that he told the National Press Club in Pretoria on Tuesday that he had never broken any law. Maharaj was reacting to criticism that he had in effect censored the Mail & Guardian newspaper by preventing it from publishing allegations against him. He countered he had evidence that the M&G; had committed a criminal offence. 'I went and did what the law says. I laid a charge.' Maharaj's attorneys laid a charge against the M&G; and two of its journalists - Sam Sole and Stefaans Brummer - for violating Section 41(6) of the National Prosecuting Act of 1988. He said his refusal to answer questions was a consequence of his belief that a court of law should decide whether there was any wrongdoing. He said he was not prepared to subject himself to 'trial by media'. The Sunday Times has since reported that Maharaj and his wife Zarina received millions of rands in kickbacks related to the arms deal, the report states. Full report on the News24 site Maharaj, however, remained tight-lipped on whether or not his wife received money from convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik, notes a report in The Mercury. Maharaj refused to answer questions related to allegations that French arms company Thales channelled bribes to his wife through Shaik's company as reported by the Sunday Times. He said if he were to answer the question about whether or not he had received bribes from Thales, he would be legitimising the Mail & Guardian's criminality. According to Maharaj, the fact that the newspaper had blacked out some parts of the article about him created an impression that it was the truth. The report notes the Mail & Guardian has maintained that it has not broken any law and that being in possession of documents is not a crime. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed) Maharaj's criminal charges against the M&G; are to be investigated by the Hawks, police said, according to a report on the IoL site. Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed that the case, which was opened against the newspaper by Maharaj's lawyers at Park View police station, had been transferred to the Hawks. M&G; editor Nic Dawes labelled the decision to get the Hawks to investigate as 'an abuse of state resources to go after our sources'. A report on the News24 site says Maharaj's attorneys also requested the police to investigate whether records of NPA inquiries had been stolen. Full report on the IoL site Full report on the News24 site A Sunday Times investigation accuses Maharaj of receiving millions in bribes from French weapons maker Thales, the company that will be at the centre of the government's arms deal inquiry next year. A report in the paper says a two-month Sunday Times investigation has uncovered a paper trail that leads from the arms company to Maharaj and his wife Zarina. The report alleges Schabir Shaik, Zuma's former financial adviser who was convicted of corruption in the arms deal trial, was the conduit used by Thales to channel the money to Zarina Maharaj. The paper claims to have unearthed an agreement that shows that secret payments totalling 1.2m French francs (R2.3m) went from the arms dealer's French bank to offshore bank accounts belonging to Maharaj's wife Zarina just two months before her husband's department awarded the French company a controversial credit card licence tender worth R265m. The report says Maharaj declined to respond to detailed questions on his wife's secret offshore payments from Thales via Shaik's Swiss bank accounts. 'These issues' had been investigated by the Scorpions who 'did not bring any charges against either of us', he said. Full Sunday Times report President Jacob Zuma said that there was no need to probe bribery allegations levelled against his spokesperson as the (arms deal) inquiry had been commissioned to investigate the matter. Zuma is quoted in a Daily News report as saying that all queries regarding the matter should be directed to that commission. Full Daily News report Clauses in the NPA Act are similar to how the Protection of State Information Bill could affect investigative journalists in future, notes a Mail & Guardian Online report. Martin Weltz, Sole's former editor at investigative magazine Noseweek is quoted as saying: 'I just think the timing of this event (criminal charges) is extraordinary. It's literally days before they're wanting to introduce the Secrecy Bill, just as, I think, they thought they were going to get away with it. It's suddenly highlighted to the public a foretasting of things to come. It demonstrates to the public, even before the government's gotten out of the starting blocks, what it's all about ... that the press is the last dyke before the flood.' Full Mail & Guardian Online report A new book on the deal has dragged former President Thabo Mbeki and his brother Moeletsi Mbeki into the spotlight. According to Business Report, this emerges in The Devil in the Detail, Paul Holden and Hennie van Vuuren's recently published book on the deal, which was signed off by the government in the late 1990s. The book tells of how the arms deal emerged 'out of the criminal networks of both the old SA Defence Force and the ANC's security apparatus, raising questions as to whether SA's remarkable transition was not oiled, at key points, by criminal intent and collusion'. Speaking at the Cape Town Press Club recently, Holden said it was unclear whether the former President's brother knew of involving a subcontract to provide gearboxes for the SA Navy's corvette programme at the time but he clearly had benefited from it. Full report in Business Report .
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