Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Arestricted report which threatens to show up former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota in a bad light has been rubbished by his former department as having been “doctored”.

Nearly two years after Lekota vehemently denied the reported multimillion-rand theft and loss of defence force equipment, vehicles and supplies from its bases in Burundi, a restricted SA National Defence Force legal services staff paper has described the non-prosecution of those responsible as “stupefying”.

But the Defence Department yesterday insisted that the report obtained by The Star – which was originally commissioned by the chief of the SANDF’s legal services – had been altered by unknown people with access to restricted documentation.

As a result of the “doctoring” of the report, the department’s spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi refused to clarify or comment on the report’s criticism of “the non-prosecution of any (Burundi-based battalion) commanders for negligent losses of state equipment and property, and failure to account for the theft from SANDF stores in Burundi”.

The document’s author, Captain DK Gillespie, said last night: “I did not write that.”

The Star drew Lekota’s ire in 2006 when it reported on a SANDF board of inquiry into the disappearance of vehicles, guns, ammunition, bombs and supplies worth more than R27-million from South African army bases in Burundi.

Lekota reacted to The Star’s report with outrage.

“The disturbing thing about this report is that it is so grossly inaccurate as to suggest bad faith,” he said at the time.

While criticising The Star’s report as “unprofessional” and “unethical”, Lekota, however, admitted that “some” rifles and mortars were missing.

Standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) chairperson Themba Godi yesterday said the defence force had failed to provide “any firm and detailed answers about the location” of its missing equipment and vehicles.

“We were not satisfied with their responses on the question of the thefts and losses …

“We were really quite horrified at the way in which the entire operation and management of the SANDF had deteriorated.”

Godi went on to say that Scopa’s most recent meeting with the SANDF had left the committee with the impression that “this was not a department in control”.

Of all the missing vehicles, one only Casspir was traced.