Publication: City Press
Issued:
Date: 2007-03-24
Reporter: Makhudu Sefara
The Scorpions’ investigation of former Transport Minister Mac
Maharaj and his wife, Zarina, is centred on millions of
rands stashed in foreign accounts.
City Press has traced a
sizeable number of questionable payments made by, among others, Jacob Zuma’s
jailed former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik. They were made into accounts
belonging to Maharaj or his wife in the Isle of Man, the UK
and in Zurich and Geneva.
City Press has also established that
Shaik, former boss of Nkobi Holdings, used a company he established offshore
called Minderly Investment to put money into a Banque
SCS Alliance account belonging to Zarina Maharaj.
A four-month City Press
investigation has revealed that the account was operational between 1996 and
2000 when Maharaj was transport minister. In that time, his department awarded
two multimillion-rand tenders for the credit-card drivers’ licences and the N3
toll road construction between Johannesburg and Durban. Shaik, who was also a
director of Thomson, or his companies, benefited in both.
City Press can
reveal that Maharaj’s wife opened a bank account on October 14, 1996 and closed
it on April 6, 2000. Only two credit transfers were made
into the account in that period – both were from Shaik’s offshore
company.
On October 16, 1996, 579 999 French francs, then
estimated at US $111 111, were deposited into Zarina Maharaj’s Banque SCS
Alliance account by Shaik’s company. Shaik’s Minderly account was opened on
October 11, 1996 and Zarina Maharaj’s, three days later.
On March 13,
1997, $100 000 was deposited into the same account by Minderly, which had Shaik
as its only signatory. Six days after the first payment, $96 000 was debited
from this account to another in Zarina Maharaj’s name at Allied Dunbar Bank.
About 27 days after the second payment, $65 000 was debited to this account. It
was opened by her in the 1980s. In 2000, a $54 268 cheque was issued to her and
the account was closed.
Documents in City Press’s possession show that
Shaik’s Swiss account had two credit transfers made for 1.2 million French
francs from Banque Paribas Paris. It is believed investigators want to establish
who Shaik’s funders in Paris are. It is well known
that Paris is the head office of French arms firm
Thint. It is accused with Shaik of paying bribes to Zuma. It is common
cause that Thint, then called Thomson-CSF, had a 33.3% share in the R650 million
drivers’ licence tender. The payments made to the Maharajs were in 1996 and
1997. A decision on the credit-card licence was announced in 1998 and the N3
tender process was finalised in June 1998.
A letter from the Scorpions’
director of investigations, Thanda Mngwengwe, shows that the Scorpions have made
an application under the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act to
the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police to get the full scope of the
origins and “further flow of funds” in foreign countries for “possible prosecution of Maharaj and/or Z Maharaj and/or
Shaik”.
This raises the possibility that Shaik could again find
himself in the dock for allegedly paying money to the Maharajes after which he
and Thint benefited from the contracts. Investigators also
want amounts of $95 979 and $64 979 marked “B/O CREDIT SUISSE” in Zarina
Maharaj’s account explained.
The payment dates show they were
received before crucial decisions by Maharaj’s department on the two tenders. At
the time, Maharaj was planning to retire from politics in 1999.
Late last
year, Maharaj launched an application at the Pretoria High Court seeking a
declaratory order against sections of the National Prosecuting Authority which,
he said in papers, were “inconsistent” with the Constitution.
A source
said then that the move followed summonses served on him and his wife to appear
before Mngwengwe to answer questions on what was termed the “Swiss matter”. In
terms of Section’s 28 subsections (6) (8) and (10), a person being summoned has
no right to silence, can only leave when told to and a failure to appear and
telling an untruth are considered offences for which a person could be jailed or
fined or both.
City Press has established that Maharaj appeared on June 19, 2003 and Zarina the next day before Advocate Annemarie Friedman *2, who led the
interrogations.
Maharaj has now asked the Pretoria High Court to stop
Scorpions investigators from using the information sourced from him and his
wife. He argues that it was obtained using sections of the law which, in his
view, were unconstitutional.
Approached for comment, Maharaj said he did
not wish to comment about the claims against him. “Talk to my attorney. Forcing
me to comment would be asking me to act improperly,” said Maharaj.
City
Press is in possession of two letters dated July 29,
2005 to Maharaj and his wife by Scorpions’ Gauteng head Gerrie Nel. It is
an invitation to them to clear contradictions and apparent omissions after their
interrogations.
A September 30, 2005 *1 reply
from Maharaj’s lawyer, Rudi Krause, says “no crime whatsoever has been
committed”.
Krause said yesterday that the case was “at a stage where it
is being attended to by my colleague Mr Claasen who, unfortunately, is on
leave”.
In a follow-up letter, Nel writes: “We have an authorised
investigation during which your clients gave evidence. We are now at the point
of making decisions regarding the investigation. Your clients’ co-operation
would put us in a better position to make decisions, but is not
essential.”
With acknowledgements to Makhudu Sefara and City Press.
*1 The investigations were clearly
almost complete eighteen months ago, after Section 28 interviews were done
nearly four years ago..
Just how long does it take to serve an indictment
and proceed to trial.
Or is Mac going to slip away like most of the
others?
Because he is, like Comrade Joe Modise, a hero of the struggle,
The Commander of Operation Vula.
No wonder some frustrated someone in the
DSO has slipped a brown envelope to the good citizens of the fourth estate at
Rapport and the City Press.
Whistleblowing at its best.
Now it's
time to be looking at all those interesting funds flows from foreign banks
account to, inter alia, Chippy Shaik and Fana
Hlongwane.
*2 Is this the same person as Advocate
Annemarie van der Kolf (or van der Colf?).