The controversial arms trade is partly responsible for the mass killings that have rocked the United States according to anti-corruption activist Andrew Feinstein.
He said there was an undeniable link between the money that defence contractors give to the National Rifle Association of America and the ease of access to guns by people who commit mass killings in the country.
The former ANC parliamentarian was speaking to the Daily Dispatch in East London after the screening of his film Shadow World – which exposes corruption in the arms industry especially the USA, Saudi Arabia and the UK – on Wednesday night.
He said defence contractors funded the lobby groups who opposed stricter gun control.
“If you created a graph between the laws that make it difficult to buy weapons, the more laws there are, the fewer shootings you have in a country.
“America has the most lenient laws for gun ownership and it has by far the highest rate of killings by guns by civilians on other civilians.
“So it’s an incontrovertible fact that American gun laws lead to these constant tragic massacres and the people responsible for that are the lawmakers sitting in Congress and the defence companies who give them money to ensure they won’t vote for more restrictive gun laws.
“Those people have the blood of these innocent victims on their hands,” said Feinstein.
His comments come a few days after the deadliest mass killing in the US, where a lone gunman, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Feinstein, who now heads Corruption Watch UK, is in the country to promote his film, which was screened as part of the Dispatch Dialogues at the Guild Theatre.
He left South Africa after exposing some illicit dealings in the country’s controversial arms deal.
Earlier he told the audience he could no longer go to Russia because he had written an exposé about the country’s president Vladimir Putin.
He said European countries had been forced into corruption as they could not compete with the USA in the arms trade.
He said the next step was to try and get countries to cut their arms spend by 10% in the next decade.
“The Europeans became a lot more corrupt in the 80s and 90s and the reason for that is they could not compete with the US because the US has such huge economies of scale,” he said.
According to the former politician that is how the South African arms deal was corrupted.
The arms deal activist said there was overwhelming evidence of corruption that had been ignored by the Seriti Commission – whose final report found no proof of corruption in the R46-billion deal.
It was ridiculous, said Feinstein, that President Jacob Zuma was never called to testify before the commission.
The author of After the Party – a book of alleged corruption on the SA arms deal – said he knew the commission was a farce the moment Judge Seriti ruled that the commission would only consider documents as evidence if those submitting them were directly involved in the payment of bribes or in receiving such bribes.
“Six very senior members of the commission resigned, and three of them said publicly when they resigned that the reason they are resigning had only two objectives; that is to whitewash any corruption in the deal and to ensure that the critics of the deal were made to look bad,” he said.
Feinstein said they withdrew from the process after being advised by their lawyers.
He said South African activist organisations should seek a legal review of the commission’s work. — silusaphon@dispatch.co.za
Arms trade linked to US killings
He said there was an undeniable link between the money that defence contractors give to the National Rifle Association of America and the ease of access to guns by people who commit mass killings in the country.
The former ANC parliamentarian was speaking to the Daily Dispatch in East London after the screening of his film Shadow World – which exposes corruption in the arms industry especially the USA, Saudi Arabia and the UK – on Wednesday night.
He said defence contractors funded the lobby groups who opposed stricter gun control.
“If you created a graph between the laws that make it difficult to buy weapons, the more laws there are, the fewer shootings you have in a country.
“America has the most lenient laws for gun ownership and it has by far the highest rate of killings by guns by civilians on other civilians.
“So it’s an incontrovertible fact that American gun laws lead to these constant tragic massacres and the people responsible for that are the lawmakers sitting in Congress and the defence companies who give them money to ensure they won’t vote for more restrictive gun laws.
“Those people have the blood of these innocent victims on their hands,” said Feinstein.
His comments come a few days after the deadliest mass killing in the US, where a lone gunman, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Feinstein, who now heads Corruption Watch UK, is in the country to promote his film, which was screened as part of the Dispatch Dialogues at the Guild Theatre.
He left South Africa after exposing some illicit dealings in the country’s controversial arms deal.
Earlier he told the audience he could no longer go to Russia because he had written an exposé about the country’s president Vladimir Putin.
He said European countries had been forced into corruption as they could not compete with the USA in the arms trade.
He said the next step was to try and get countries to cut their arms spend by 10% in the next decade.
“The Europeans became a lot more corrupt in the 80s and 90s and the reason for that is they could not compete with the US because the US has such huge economies of scale,” he said.
According to the former politician that is how the South African arms deal was corrupted.
The arms deal activist said there was overwhelming evidence of corruption that had been ignored by the Seriti Commission – whose final report found no proof of corruption in the R46-billion deal.
It was ridiculous, said Feinstein, that President Jacob Zuma was never called to testify before the commission.
The author of After the Party – a book of alleged corruption on the SA arms deal – said he knew the commission was a farce the moment Judge Seriti ruled that the commission would only consider documents as evidence if those submitting them were directly involved in the payment of bribes or in receiving such bribes.
“Six very senior members of the commission resigned, and three of them said publicly when they resigned that the reason they are resigning had only two objectives; that is to whitewash any corruption in the deal and to ensure that the critics of the deal were made to look bad,” he said.
Feinstein said they withdrew from the process after being advised by their lawyers.
He said South African activist organisations should seek a legal review of the commission’s work. — silusaphon@dispatch.co.za
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