No Payments to Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma or any other public Official | Offset Projects saved and created thousands of Jobs in SA

On Sunday, August 3 and August 10, 2008, allegations appeared in a South African newspaper that MAN Ferrostaal had bribed SA President Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and others in the ANC. These allegations are wrong and entirely unfounded.

MAN Ferrostaal never made any payments to SA President Thabo Mbeki, to Jacob Zuma or to any other member of the ANC or to any other public official. MAN Ferrostaal in addition states that the articles mentioned contain a large number of factual errors with regards to MAN Ferrostaal and therefore violates the basics of journalistic accuracy.

The company has requested the newspaper to publish a rectification of the article. The options of legal action are currently being evaluated.

Contrary to what the article on August 10 claims, both of the offset programmes MAN Ferrostaal is pursuing in SA are well under way. The one for ARMSCOR, the national procurement office, has successfully been fulfilled, and, as stated in a letter by ARMSCOR, actually has been over fulfilled. As stated by the DTI a few days ago, the DTI had rejected an originally planned steel works in Coega. MAN Ferrostaal is successfully pursuing projects to replace this.

With its offset projects executed so far, MAN Ferrostaal has made a substantial contribution to the SA economy, having invested several hundreds of million Rand and having saved and created several thousands of jobs. Examples of these projects are a production facility for microchips in Pretoria, tea plantations and a fabrication yard for oil and gas platforms in Saldanha Bay, Western Cape, which was handed over to the local operator late last year. The yard is now negotiating its first contracts. These contracts will give South Africa the possibility of participating in the booming African oil and gas market. The first yard will be supplemented by a second facility for the maintenance and service of oil and platforms in Cape Town Harbour. The company is currently working on obtaining permission to build this second yard.

Together, the two yards and supplying local companies are expected to create several thousands of jobs in the mid term.

Due to the success of the current projects, MAN Ferrostaal was invited last year by the DTI to enter into a strategic partnership with the Department in order to continue the cooperation after all offset obligations have been fulfilled.

Statement issued by MAN Ferrostaal AG, Essen Germany, August 10 2008