Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2007-04-15 Reporter: Jeremy Gordin

ANC Leaders were 'Paid Out for Investments'

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent

Date

2007-04-15

Reporter

 Jeremy Gordin

Web Link

www.sundayindependent.co.za

 

Penuell Maduna and Barbara Masekela have been named in court documents as having received money from Jurgen Kögl, the businessman suspected by the Scorpions of laundering the bribe allegedly paid to Jacob Zuma by French arms company Thint.

But Maduna, who was the minister of justice when he received R145 000 from Cay Nominees, a Kögl company, and is now an attorney in Johannesburg, said the money was a lawful payout for a legitimate investment.

He added that, as far as he knew, the same situation applied to Masekela, South Africa's ambassador to the United States. By last night, Masekela had not responded to queries on the matter.

Regarding four other payments of R115 000 each, made in September 2004 by a Kögl-controlled company, to four people identified only as TM, AP, MM and JZ *1 (Jacob Zuma), Maduna said that he would "not be at all surprised" if TM stood for Thabo Mbeki, the president; AP for Aziz Pahad, the deputy minister for foreign affairs; and MM for Mendi Msimang, the treasurer-general of the ANC.

"The thing is," said Maduna, "many senior ANC people were present at an initial meeting with Kögl in 1993 or 1994 at which he offered us excellent investment opportunities, and many of us invested.

"Later, when some of us, like myself, became members of government and could not hold those investments, they were shifted into a blind trust by Kögl. None of it was illegal and none of it is surprising to hear about. I can't understand what the fuss is about."

By last night, the president had also not responded on the issue. Mukoni Ratshitanga, the presidential spokesperson, said that Mbeki had not, given the work awaiting him on his return from France, had a chance to do so.

Pahad said via Ronnie Mamoepa, the spokesperson for foreign affairs, that he had "never received a cent in any way, shape or form from Jurgen".

The details of these payments are listed in a KPMG draft report, "The State versus Jacob Zuma and others: Forensic investigation", dated September 2 2006.

The report was appended to the papers submitted by the Scorpions at the end of last month when they requested a letter from the Pretoria high court enabling them to seek international assistance so that they could examine certain documents at Kögl's London solicitors, Berwin Leighton Paisner, and at the firm's bank.

According to Leonard McCarthy, chief of the Directorate of Special Operations, in his affidavit to the court, "… there are some indications that the payments [from Kögl company Cay Nominees to Zuma] may in fact be linked to Thomson/Thales [Thint] and their undertaking to pay Zuma R500 000 per annum as a bribe.

"… it [also] appears that Berwin Leighton Paisner's account was used to launder the payment of money from Thomson/Thales to Zuma in accordance with the bribe agreement in the encrypted fax," McCarthy said.

In the section analysing the bank account of Cay Nominees, the author of the KPMG report noted that on March 31 2000, a transfer of R145 000 was made by telegraphic transfer to "Standard Bank Sandton P Maduna".

The KPMG report also noted that Kögl had clearly managed funds on behalf of various "government officials and/or politicians" including Barbara Masekela.

Cay Nominees was also listed as a shareholder, the report said, of African Renaissance Holdings (ARH), incorporated in 1994 as an empowerment investment holding company. Both Kögl and Masekela were founder shareholders of ARH which, according to documentation in the possession of KPMG, was incorporated in response to a 1993 "request by returning ANC leaders" to "… create a commercial vehicle with the singular objective - to be at the vanguard of the economic transformation and empowerment of black South Africans".

Another ARH shareholder was Mabusele Investments, incorporated in 1998 and of which Masekela is a director.

According to the report, in 2005 Cay Nominees paid Masekela and Mabusele R778 200.

The report also detailed four payments from Cay Nominees to four clients, payments emanating from ARH's Nedbank account. Each was for R115 000 and was deposited on September 23 2004 into accounts respectively bearing the initials TM, AP, MM, and JZ.

Maduna said that Cay Nominees accepted funds from various clients so as to invest the funds in listed and unlisted shares and other investment instruments. The investments were made in the name of Cay Nominees, which acted as the nominee of its clients. His payout, he said, was the result of him and his wife deciding to get out of their investment at that point.

He said he would find it "very difficult to believe" that Kögl had ever been involved in the "commission of a crime" because "quite simply, Kögl had no need to. He had plenty of money of his own.

"Let me tell you too," said Maduna, "that Kögl was a great friend of ours in the early days. Those were times when we in the ANC needed people who were discrete and could get things done. He was one of those. During those days of early negotiations, he was also able to facilitate meetings with certain people - let's say certain Afrikaner elements. Without him, we would never have got to them."

Asked what he thought of the linking by the Scorpions of Kögl to the alleged laundering of money for Thint and Zuma, Maduna said: "Well, if you suspect there has been the commission of a crime, you have to investigate, but still…"

A very senior ANC leader, who asked not to be named, said: "The irony of this whole business is that I'm pretty sure that Zuma never knew Kögl initially. We knew that JZ, who was our comrade and was doing important work in KwaZulu-Natal, was in big financial trouble.

"So we asked Kögl to assist him. If we had not asked, Kögl would not have helped him."

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Gordin and Sunday Independent.


*1       The Big Fish.