PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Mac Maharaj has shrugged off allegations of unlawful conduct that he and his wife Zarina received millions of rands from French arms company Thales.
Maharaj yesterday said the Sunday Times, despite publishing a report over two pages, had not found the space to publish his three-sentence emailed response to the paper in full. Instead, it had selected parts of his response for publication, and this had consciously limited the public's awareness of what he had said.
"The fact that the Scorpions did not bring any charges against either of us should make you alive to the fact that the reported insinuations and allegations of unlawful conduct by us implied in your questions may once again result in, and subject us to character assassination and trial by media consciously making use of selective information only," Maharaj said in his reply.
"These issues belong to matters that were investigated by the Scorpions. Neither Zarina Maharaj nor I are prepared to subject ourselves to a separate and additional investigation by a member of the media based on isolated aspects of a comprehensive investigation conducted by institutions established and empowered by law to do so."
The DA has since called on President Jacob Zuma to suspend Maharaj without delay and would ask the public protector to investigate the allegations.
According to the report, secret payments ofR3.2-million were paid into Zarina's offshore bank accounts shortly before Thales was awarded a R265-million tender by the Department of Transport, which Mac Maharaj headed.
The payments were made via Swiss bank accounts belonging to Schabir Shaik's company Minderley Investments. Shaik, Zuma's former financial adviser, was convicted of corruption in 2005.
The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of a consultancy agreement with Shaik' s company, which had never before been disclosed. "It is believed the Scorpions were unable to obtain this agreement, and that this ultimately torpedoed their corruption investigation into Maharaj in 2007," it reported.
Maharaj shrugs off claims of bribery
PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Mac Maharaj has shrugged off allegations of unlawful conduct that he and his wife Zarina received millions of rands from French arms company Thales.
Maharaj yesterday said the Sunday Times, despite publishing a report over two pages, had not found the space to publish his three-sentence emailed response to the paper in full. Instead, it had selected parts of his response for publication, and this had consciously limited the public's awareness of what he had said.
"The fact that the Scorpions did not bring any charges against either of us should make you alive to the fact that the reported insinuations and allegations of unlawful conduct by us implied in your questions may once again result in, and subject us to character assassination and trial by media consciously making use of selective information only," Maharaj said in his reply.
"These issues belong to matters that were investigated by the Scorpions. Neither Zarina Maharaj nor I are prepared to subject ourselves to a separate and additional investigation by a member of the media based on isolated aspects of a comprehensive investigation conducted by institutions established and empowered by law to do so."
The DA has since called on President Jacob Zuma to suspend Maharaj without delay and would ask the public protector to investigate the allegations.
According to the report, secret payments ofR3.2-million were paid into Zarina's offshore bank accounts shortly before Thales was awarded a R265-million tender by the Department of Transport, which Mac Maharaj headed.
The payments were made via Swiss bank accounts belonging to Schabir Shaik's company Minderley Investments. Shaik, Zuma's former financial adviser, was convicted of corruption in 2005.
The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of a consultancy agreement with Shaik' s company, which had never before been disclosed. "It is believed the Scorpions were unable to obtain this agreement, and that this ultimately torpedoed their corruption investigation into Maharaj in 2007," it reported.
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