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Earlier presented only as 'Witness X', Ajay Sooklal was delivering explosive testimony at the People's Tribunal during sessions on the arms deal corruption on Monday afternoon.
Sooklal, an attorney who had a close relationship with people involved in the arms deal and in the upper echelons of the ANC, has made allegations placing ANC bigwigs and corporate bosses at the centre of alleged arms deal corruption.
The allegations so far, mostly referring to events in the late 1990s and early 2000s, relate to the investigation by South African authorities into Thales, formerly called Thompson-CSF, a French arms manufacturer and notorious sanctions-buster at the centre of the arms deal and allegations of corruption against President Jacob Zuma.

Among the explosive allegations is Sooklal's claim that there were numerous attempts by French officials to quash the investigation into Thales by the National Prosecuting Authority. This included a direct request by then president of France, Jacques Chirac, to then president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, he said.

Sooklal in his testimony has detailed just how close he has been to these dealings. He attended meetings in France and South Africa with Thales bosses and South African officials where he was privy to much information
— raeesa pather (@raediology) February 5, 2018

Sooklal says there were numerous attempts by French officials to quash the investigation into Thales by SA authorities. He said that in 2004, French president Chirac asked Thabo Mbeki that the NPA stop investigating Thales role in arms deal
— raeesa pather (@raediology) February 5, 2018

Thales is alleged to have committed bribes of R500,000 per year to then deputy president Jacob Zuma to protect Thales in the arms deal probe. Sooklal says following this promise to Zuma, the NPA landed up withdrawing the charges.

Sooklal now going into details of the infamous encrypted fax - Thales commited to R500k per year bribe of then dept pres Jacob Zuma to protect Thales in #ArmsDeal probes. Zuma used codeword "Eiffel Tower" to accept money. @TeamNews24#PeoplesTribunal
— Pieter-Louis Myburgh (@PLMyburgh) February 5, 2018

Thales is also alleged to have made a 1-million-Euro "donation" to the ANC ahead of the 2006 elections through , the payment of which was made to then ANC treasurer-general Mendi Msimang.

Other role players include then President Thabo Mbeki, Mr Schabir Shaik, Mr Shaik's brother and attorney, Mr Kgalemo Motlante, Jacob Zuma #PeoplesTribunal
— Corruption Watch (@Corruption_SA) February 5, 2018

He also testified that former financial adviser to Jacob Zuma, Schabir Shaik, received money from Thales via a Swiss bank account, some of which was transferred to Mac Maharaj and his wife Zarina who then transferred these funds to a bank account in the Isle of Man.

Thetard, Perrier, Schaik, Maharaj are implicated in the bribe agreement, Sooklal says. He bases this on the judgement from Swiss courts. Says we must ask why the NPA didn't prosecute based on this info.
— raeesa pather (@raediology) February 5, 2018

Unsurprisingly - the payment of bribes and hush money alleged by Sooklal to have been payed to Maharaj were mostly transferred to large banks in Switzerland, France, Isle of Mann. These are the facilitators of global corruption. #PeoplesTribunalhttps://t.co/7a7NZ6d217
— OpenSecretsZA (@OpenSecretsZA) February 5, 2018

Ajay Sooklal giving damning evidence of the role of banks and tax havens like the Isle of Mann and Virgin Islands in helping money gotten through corruption and bribes to move offshore to be hidden and cover tracks #PeoplesTribunal@TaxJusticeNet
— OpenSecretsZA (@OpenSecretsZA) February 5, 2018

Dear @INTERPOL_HQ: this is the first time a photo of Alain Thetard, French arms dealer, and major player in the corrupt South Africa arms deal been made public. You may want to share this with your whatsapp group. #PeoplesTribunalhttps://t.co/POyD6NcveT
— Hennie van Vuuren (@hennievvuuren) February 5, 2018

Sooklal's explosive testimony continues - claims Thales SA boss Pierre Moynot admitted to paying US$1million to Chippy Shaik, who headed SA's arms procurement. @TeamNews24#PeoplesTribunal
— Pieter-Louis Myburgh (@PLMyburgh) February 5, 2018

This is a developing story.