S.A. oil buyers spent too much—Opposition

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 10

S.A. oil buyers spent too much—Opposition

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg Reports of a scandal concerning South Africa’s oil supplies have appeared in the country’s Sunday newspapers after allegations last week that a Government agency had seriously overspent on fuel. Despite strict laws governing what can be said about the country’s oil purchases, the “Sunday Times” reported a clash in Parliament on Friday between the Opposition Leader, Dr Fredryk van Zyl Slabbert, and the Prime Minister, Mr Pieter Botha, which could rock the National Party Government. Dr Slabbert, speaking under Parliamentary privilege, alleged that the Stateowned Strategic Fuel Fund

Association had paid certain oil suppliers 310 million rand (about $474 million) more than the price it had contracted to pay. His Opposition Progressive Federal Party also had called for a Parliamentary select committee to investigate the allegations, but Mr Botha had refused, the “Sunday Times” said. The “Sunday Express” said that the career of Mr F. W. de Klerk, the Transvaal leader of the National Party and now Internal Affairs Minister, could be in jeopardy if evidence emerged that oil procurement had been mishandled when he was Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister. Mr de Klerk had the

Energy portfolio when the most contentious oil contracts cited by Dr Slabbert were clinched, it said. In its main story the “Sunday Tribune” reported that five senior South African Government officials bad been implicated in allegations of misappropriating millions of rand worth of oil money.

The “Tribune” said that the names of the five had formed part of a dossier handed by Dr Slabbert to Mr Botha. Mr Botha has said that an investigation showed no evidence of corruption. Many oil-exporting countries have embargoed supplies to South Africa because of its policy of apartheid. a