Date: Thu Dec 11 15:15:22 2014
Time to take the Gaddafi Trillions seriously
11 December 2014
Like the fabled 'Kruger Millions' - the treasure which Transvaal republic
president Paul Kruger was supposed to have buried or stashed away before
fleeing to Switzerland during the Anglo-Boer War - the tales of the Gaddafi
Trillions just won't go away.
There were several newspapers stories about the treasure in 2013, but last
weekend the
<http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/found-in-sa-libya-s-trillions-1.1791851#
.VIlFzodCUdU> Johannesburg Sunday Independent gave the most comprehensive
account of the vast quantities of loot which were allegedly flown from Libya
to South Africa during the last days of the regime of former Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi.
Unlike Kruger, of course, Gaddafi never got away. He was caught as he tried
to flee from his home town of Sirte towards the border on 20 October 2011
and murdered in cold blood.
The Sunday Independent reported that some R2 trillion in US dollars,
hundreds of tons of gold and six million carats of diamonds, were ferried to
South Africa in at least 62 flights between Tripoli and South Africa. The
loot is now being stored at seven heavily guarded warehouses and bunkers in
secret locations between Pretoria and Johannesburg.
The newspaper said that the Hawks - South Africa's special investigative
unit - were investigating a possible violation of exchange control
regulations relating to this clandestine import of cash and treasure. The R2
trillion excluded several billion rands held legally in four banks in South
Africa, the Sunday Independent also said.
Fantastical as it sounds, the story does not lack credibility. First of all,
it was written by the Sunday Independent's editor Jovial Rantao who said it
was based on official documentation he had seen. Secondly, Western diplomats
do not discount the report. And thirdly, the South African authorities have
not dismissed the report as a fairy tale, as they presumably could have.
Instead the Hawks simply declined to comment. 'We are at a level where we
cannot comment on the matter,' spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko told the
South African Press Association, rather intriguingly.
Even more intriguing is the hint at President Jacob Zuma's involvement in
the flight of the Gaddafi Trillions to South Africa. The Sunday Independent
story suggested that most of the assets were moved after Zuma became
involved in an African Union (AU) effort to end the civil war between
Gaddafi and the Benghazi-based rebels trying to oust him.
Zuma flew to Tripoli in April 2011 with a five-person African presidential
committee appointed by the AU to mediate between the two sides. On 10 April,
after the committee had met Gaddafi, Zuma announced that Gaddafi had
accepted the AU roadmap for ending the conflict.
Zuma himself did not fly on to Benghazi to meet the rebel leaders but the
other members of the AU presidential committee did. The rebels rejected the
roadmap and it eventually came to nothing.
NATO had temporarily lifted its no-fly zone over Libya to allow Zuma and the
rest of the committee into the country on their peace mission. There were to
be many recriminations by Zuma, the AU and others later that NATO
deliberately sabotaged their peace efforts by not suspending the blockade
again so they could continue their efforts.
Their criticism of NATO has been reinforced by the chaos into which Libya
has fallen since the fall of Gaddafi and the overflow of its instability
into neighbouring countries. Critics of NATO, including the South African
government, say that the power-sharing formula that lay behind the AU
roadmap, could have avoided this chaos.
The re-appearance of the Gaddafi treasure, if it indeed exists, raises some
interesting questions about that peace process. Did Zuma make a deal with
Gaddafi to safeguard the loot, when he met him in Tripoli on the peace
mission?
And if so, to what end? Was the idea to make the money available to him if
indeed he lost the battle but managed to flee the country? When the rebels
captured Tripoli that August and Gaddafi disappeared, there were many
rumours that he had headed for South Africa. Instead he had just retreated
to his tribal base in Sirte, perhaps intending a comeback, or perhaps just
waiting for the coast to clear before making his fatal run south, apparently
to the border.
And if this was the deal with the loot, was there to be a big commission for
those who took care of it?
It was never a secret that Gaddafi dispensed the proceeds of Libya's oil
wealth liberally to his allies. There have been persistent rumours that the
ANC was one of his beneficiaries, along with many other African governments
and rebel movements. That fact deeply undercut the credibility of that AU
peace effort in 2011, suggesting to many that it was designed to save
Gaddafi rather than to save Libya.
When the reports about the Gaddafi Trillions first surfaced last year, it
was said that two factions in the ANC government were fighting over the
treasure and each was dealing with a different faction in Libya.
The Sunday Independent story reiterates and elaborates on part of this
narrative, naming two international independent agencies supposedly trying
to get their hands on the loot, each claiming to be the authentic
representative of the Libyan government. One of them, at least, promises
that if it gets hold of the assets, it will re-invest them liberally in
South Africa.
Quite clearly all such claims should be treated as bogus. Libya is now run,
if that is the right word, by two governments, one Islamist and the other
secular, each controlling different territories. At this stage, in effect,
there is no legitimate government to which any such assets could ethically
be returned.
Shortly after the reports about the Gaddafi loot surfaced last year, then
finance minister Pravin Gordhan met the minister in the office of the Libyan
prime minister, Usama al Abid in Pretoria. They issued a statement to say
they had agreed that Libyan funds in South Africa would be repatriated
through the UN, which had established a committee and panel of experts to
seek Gaddafi's assets around the world.
But Gordhan and al Abidi appeared to be referring to legitimate and
transparent assets, like those referred to in the Sunday Independent story
as being held in South African bank accounts and investments, such as in a
Joburg hotel group. Since then Libya has descended into further chaos and
who knows where al Abidi is?
Clearly all assets which Gaddafi invested - or secretly stashed - in South
Africa belong to the Libyan people and should be frozen and held in trust
until a comprehensive and stable government is in place. And that includes
the Gaddafi Trillions, if indeed they exist.
The reports should be taken seriously enough for the government to launch a
transparent, independent and credible investigation into the existence of
the assets, who brought them into the country, and for what purpose. The
only legitimate explanation for doing so would have been to keep them secure
for the Libyan people and for this purpose, surely no secrecy is required?
Peter Fabricius, Foreign Editor, Independent Newspapers, South Africa
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