South African arms deal to cost R70bn: report

When the ANC was given South Africa on a platter in 1994, they quickly went about trying to rort as much money out of the White tax payer. So, they came up with an "Arms Deal" where they pretended to buy various pieces of military equipment from around the world (you know, planes, submarines, tanks etc - just what a country at peace needed when they had 'starving' people that the Whites had neglected during Apartheid). The current SA president, Jacob Zuma, 'alledgedly' also had his fingers in the till (along with most of the ANC mob) and between the overseas companies (who paid massive kick-backs to the ANC) and the new Defence Force departments, the South African tax payer didn't get much bang for their buck. Now, some 12 years later, the true cost has finally been revealed. It hasn't cost the tax payer the measly R45 bn that the ANC admitted to - no, the cost is more likely to reach over R70 bn. Seems that the ANC forgot to tell the SA public that they hadn't added those pesky financing costs to the total. Yes folks. That's the priority of the black ANC government. Screw the needy and vulnerable (haha), rather "buy" some submarines and jet fighters that their Affirmative Action cadres have already either downed or blown-up and you the hard-working tax payer get to foot the enormous bill.  

Johannesburg - By the end of the year, South Africa's arms deal will have cost taxpayers R70bn, according to a City Press report.
This exceeded what government had been telling the public.

New information obtained was being published in a forthcoming book by former ANC MP and arms deal activist Andrew Feinstein showed that the country paid more than R70bn to buy warships, fighter jets and other arms equipment.

Lead researcher on the book, Paul Holden, told the newspaper that the figure was calculated by using the defence department's budget vote of 2008, which provided a breakdown of costs to date, as well as projected future costs of the deal until 2011.

"At the time, the stated cost to 2008 was R43bn, with a further R4.3bn to be sent by 2011.

"Unfortunately, the R4.3bn is not set in stone due to exchange rate fluctuations," Holden said.

Taking this into consideration, the cost was adjusted to R47.8bn by this year.

Holden said this was only the "stated cost" and did not include the series of "hidden costs associated with the deal...in particular, this figure did not include the financing costs.

In January Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told parliament that the deal would cost a total of R47.2bn but this excluded the financing costs.

Holden said the total amount could still increase if the value of the maintenance contracts for the jets, ships, submarines and helicopters were calculated.

"Taking this into account, we can see why the defence budget has been creaking so much recently," he said.

Sisulu's department was not immediately available for comment.

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