The Democratic Alliance is to table urgent questions in Parliament asking Justice Minister Penuell Maduna to explain, among other things, the alleged "enormous amounts of corruption in the Master's Office".

"The alleged corruption in the Master's Office and the huge thefts from the Guardians' Fund has been a problem for some years," DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said in a statement on Wednesday.

It was being investigated by the Auditor General and the Scorpions on an on-going basis, thus far with little result, she said.

"The apparent mess of corruption and theft in the Master's Office - while a serious problem - is one issue and must be distinguished from the issue of Minister Maduna's alleged abuse of power in order to push business the way of his favourite liquidator, Enver Motala."

Maduna's "insistence and intervention during the past several months", allegedly in contravention of the Companies Act, in pushing Motala for appointment in crucial liquidating raised many eyebrows, Camerer said.

In the six months to the end of September 2003 Motala had been allegedly awarded R340-million worth of liquidation appointments.

Questions Maduna should answer included why he so often intervened in this apparently inappropriate way to ensure Motala was appointed to lucrative liquidation jobs, and when would the investigations into corruption and theft in the Master's Office be completed, so that those responsible were charged and made to account, Camerer said.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and iafrica.com.