Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2007-06-23 Reporter: Angela Quintal

We're Going After Mac Maharaj, Mabandla Tells Parliament

 

Publication 

Cape Argus
Date

2007-06-23

Reporter

 Angela Quintal

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

The official silence over the corruption investigation against former transport minister Mac Maharaj and his wife Zarina has been broken.

Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla told Parliament yesterday the National Prosecuting Authority is awaiting information from Britain, as well as the outcome of a constitutional challenge at home, before deciding whether to prosecute Maharaj and others for alleged corruption.

Mabandla was replying in writing to a question from DA MP Stuart Farrow and also revealed that the investigation was more than five years old *1.

The information is the first public confirmation by a minister of details surrounding the drawn-out Maharaj investigation.

Maharaj has taken his fight against the Scorpions - to extricate himself from possible fraud, corruption, money laundering and tax prosecutions - to the Pretoria High Court, arguing that sections of the National Prosecuting Act are unconstitutional.

While Mabandla did not mention Maharaj by name, it is clear she was referring to the former transport minister and ANC stalwart. In 2003, the Sunday Times reported Maharaj was alleged to have received a R535 000 kickback *2 from Schabir Shaik, relating to a R265m contract awarded in 1997 to Prodiba, as well as a R2.6bn contract to upgrade the N3 toll road from Johannesburg to Durban.

A recent Maharaj biography, Shades of Difference by Padraig O'Malley, notes that media reports at the time did not state "that the driver's licence contract had been awarded by the State Tender Board and the toll road contract by the National Roads Agency or that neither Mac nor the ministry of transport had any say in the awarding of either contract".

With acknowledgement to Angela Quintal and Cape Argus.


*1       It's about time.


*2      Small cheese again, but still over the R500 000 threshold for the 15 years minimum in the slammer.