Share

Arms deal jobs ruse

Johannesburg - R6.4m. That's how much South African taxpayers could end up paying for each job created as part of the controversial arms deal "offsets" scheme, linked to the multibillion-rand fighter jets deal.

Media24 Investigations, using access to information legislation, has obtained the first full and official account from the trade and industry department (DTI) of the value to South Africa of the Hawks and Gripens deals worth R41bn at today's prices.

International arms manufacturers BAE ­Systems and Saab benefited from these deals.

The details released by the DTI come as President Jacob Zuma this week announced a commission of inquiry into the arms deal, which is now thought to have cost the country more than R70bn and which originally claimed to create more than 60 000 jobs.

The DTI’s figures, however, show that just 6 371 jobs were created in the BAE/Saab programme.

But even the DTI’s official figures are riddled with errors.

City Press can show job numbers have been vastly overstated, that “investments” were actually loans and that supposedly successful projects have disappeared without a trace.

But the DTI figures suggest each job cost South Africa R6.4m, using the R41bn price tag for the planes at today’s prices.

Using the original bill of R15bn for the planes, each job still cost South Africa R2.4m to create.

The return on investment and job-creation promises were a key political selling point to the South African public at the time of the deal, of which the fighter plane component took the lion’s share.

Saab’s role in the arms deal is currently under renewed scrutiny after it was revealed in June that it had been party to more than R24m in payments to government-linked consultant Fana Hlongwane.

This week, one executive involved in an offset deal with BAE/Saab said: “The offset agreement of the BAE/Saab consortium is the biggest smoke screen this country has ever experienced and has pulled the wool over the eyes of taxpayers.”

The DTI figures list 44 programmes involving BAE/Saab, for which the two claimed an offset credit of about R51bn.

These include deals which the government’s own investigations and our reporting have shown to be deeply flawed.

Activist Terry Crawford-Browne, whose Constitutional Court case asking Zuma to launch an inquiry into the deal is thought to have spurred the president into action, said he believed the DTI's claim that more than 6 000 jobs were created was "grossly overstated".

"There is no way of verifying that. DTI comes up with a wish list and nobody can actually investigate it. That has been the pattern right from the beginning because they (DTI) said the contract information is confidential."

Paul Holden, the author of The Arms Deal in Your Pocket, said: "The offsets were presented as ‘the reason’ for the arms deal. The offsets were great for marketing."

But in reality, he believes they had only a "marginal" economic impact.

Holden said the DTI's figure of 6 300 jobs could not be trusted.

"I don't buy those figures at all. They (the DTI) don't aggregate those figures either. They don't indicate if it is 6 000 direct jobs, they don't indicate what sort of jobs have been created... It is a completely meaningless figure and the sense I get is that whatever figures have been reported are completely overstated.

"I'd be very surprised if the offsets created any jobs whatsoever. I think the actual economic benefits are marginal," Holden said.

Requests for comment from the DTI, BAE and Saab went unanswered.

- Reporting by Jeanne Van Der Merwe, Anna-Maria Lombard, Jacques Dommisse, Thanduxolo Jika and Julian Rademeyer

 
We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
19.02
-0.4%
Rand - Pound
24.13
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.64
-0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.39
+0.3%
Rand - Yen
0.13
+0.4%
Platinum
901.05
-0.2%
Palladium
999.00
-0.7%
Gold
2,149.46
-0.5%
Silver
24.83
-0.8%
Brent Crude
86.89
+1.8%
Top 40
65,951
-0.5%
All Share
72,164
-0.4%
Resource 10
53,288
-0.1%
Industrial 25
99,497
-1.0%
Financial 15
16,657
+0.2%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders