Zuma halts Oilgate probe

President Jacob Zuma said that as there are no legal means to prosecute companies and traders that paid bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime to benefit from the United Nations' Food for Oil programme, there was no point in continuing the investigation any longer. The Donen Commission, which was tasked with probing the local involvement in the Oilgate matter, implicated Sandile Majali's Imvume Management in the corrupt deals, and also fingered Kgalema Motlanthe and Tokyo Sexwale. The Donen Commission's report has been in the Presidency's office since Mbeki, and Zuma decided not to continue with investigations into Majali's activities in the oil deal. Opposition parties are outraged, saying that Zuma had quashed the investigations to protect senior ANC officials. Read more: SAPA, via IOL and Bloomberg.