In the media
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19 July 2014
Al Jazeera
Former president Thabo Mbeki to testify before Arms Procurement Commission. Al Jazeera reports.
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19 July 2014
Mail & Guardian Online
The purchasing of the Gripen and Hawk fighter jets during the 1999 arms deal remains sullied with allegations of bribery and rigged tender processes. It has been the subject of international and local investigations.
On Friday, former president Thabo Mbeki said he knew nothing about the controversy. Mbeki also denied any knowledge of an investigation by the US into the purchasing of fighter jets for South Africa during the arms deal, which resulted in the admission of guilt by an arms company to what it called “accounting” errors.
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19 July 2014
Sapa
A gravely ill 12-year-old Somali girl will receive the medical treatment she needs for a heart condition, including an operation, after a settlement was reached in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
Lawyers for Human Rights, acting on behalf of the girl's family in South Africa, launched an urgent application after she was allegedly turned away from the Steve Biko Hospital because she was undocumented and her family was unable to pay a R250,000 deposit.
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19 July 2014
The Citizen
A critically ill young Somali girl was Friday morning admitted to a state hospital in Pretoria for treatment after a settlement between her lawyers and health authorities.
Lawyers for Human Rights launched an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court to secure life-saving treatment for the 12-year-old girl after she was allegedly refused treatment because she was undocumented.
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19 July 2014
Sapa
Former president Thabo Mbeki was asked to tell the Seriti Commission of Inquiry on Friday how his administration justified spending billions on the arms deal but not on antiretrovirals (ARVs) in 1999.
“It is wrong to only discuss the costs when talking about HIV/Aids, look at government policy,” he told the commission sitting in Pretoria.
“I don't know if this is part of the mandate of the commission?” he asked.
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19 July 2014
EWN
Former president Thabo Mbeki’s handling of anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment for HIV patients has been questioned at the arms deal inquiry.
He was testifying at the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into alleged fraud and corruption in the multibillion rand procurement deal.
Mbeki’s record on HIV and Aids has long been controversial, particularly due to the time it took government to begin dispensing free ARVs to patients.
He and then-health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang were blamed for not implementing programmes to provide treatment.
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18 July 2014
The Daily Vox
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has launched an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court to seek life-saving treatment for a 12-year old Somalian girl who may die because she is undocumented and cannot pay a quarter million rand bond for surgery. AAISHA DADI PATEL reports.
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17 July 2014
Pretoria News
The brother of a 12-year-old refugee Somali girl who is being refused life-saving surgery will turn to the North Gauteng High Court for an urgent order forcing the health authorities to give her the heart operation she desperately needs.
The girl cannot be operated on because she has no refugee documents, or R250 000.
The two cannot be identified because the girl is a minor.
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18 July 2014
The Times
The 10-day journey from war-torn Somalia to South Africa was tough, but it was the start of a better life for the 12-year-old.
Or so she thought.
The girl, whose unemployed and widowed mother remains in Mogadishu, planned to live with her brother in Pretoria, where he runs a small shop.
But just a day after she arrived in the country on July 4, she collapsed and was rushed to hospital - before she could apply for refugee status or an asylum-seeker permit.
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17 July 2014
Mail & Guardian Online
“First of all one has to ask the question: is he complicit? My answer [is stated] clearly in my book and in the statements that I have made subsequently, I would suggest yes.” – Andrew Feinstein.
It is probably not an unfair assumption that, in 1999 when the arms deal was signed under his watch, it would have been unthinkable to then-president Thabo Mbeki that he would be testifying in a judicial inquiry,15 years on. At the time, Mbeki appeared incredulous that the deal could be criticised at all.
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