Justin Arenstein
Mpumalanga’s “prince of the dodgy deal” and suspended parks chief, Alan Gray, has been forced to sell his personalised M3 BMW and Land Rover after pleading poverty in the Nelspruit regional court.
Gray’s attorney, Pieter Swanepoel, said this week Gray had been forced to “downscale” to a BMW 318i to help pay escalating legal fees in his fight against 77 embezzlement charges.
Gray still earns R43E000 a month as the Mpumalanga Parks Board chief executive, and has grossed almost R700E000 since he was suspended 16 months ago.
The charges relate to Gray’s alleged role in the theft of more than R2,3-million from the Mpumalanga Parks Board through a network of secret front companies.
Swanepoel declined to say how much Gray’s legal bills were or how much he raised by selling the two vehicles, which both bore his family crest on their bodywork.
“Have you any idea how expensive litigation is? It costs a lot,” was all Swanepoel would say.
Gray’s legal team lodged the poverty plea last week after requesting that his R25E000 bail be partially refunded so Gray could pay the R3E000 administrative fee required to access the police investigative docket. “The prosecution was just asking too much. They were demanding R1,75 per page when it only costs 20 cents to copy. But … we finally agreed to their price as a way to speed things up,” said Swanepoel.
The docket contains more than 1E700 pages of police evidence, statements and financial records confiscated from the parks board by a special Investigative Directorate for Serious Economic Offences task team during a 14-month investigation into how Gray allegedly used tax funds to bankroll private business projects and political parties.
Swanepoel told the court earlier this year it was impossible for Gray to mount a credible legal defence without full access to the evidence.
The court ordered police to hand over all evidence by March 2, but was told last week that Gray would need another two months to raise the money.
Gray personally faces 77 charges of theft and fraud in the four separate dockets, while sacked African National Congress Youth League secretary James Nkambule faces 35 fraud and 27 theft charges, Youth League organiser Alfred Thumbathi faces 33 fraud charges and former parks board accountant Maxi Green faces 37 fraud charges and one theft charge.
Gray and his alleged accomplices were not asked to plead during their brief court appearance and all had their bail of between R25E000 and R10E000 extended when the hearing was postponed to May 11. A date for plea and trial will be set at the next court appearance.
The four were arrested during a series of dawn raids by the Investigative Directorate for Serious Economic Offences in November.
Gray had, however, already been suspended from the parks board in September 1998 for his role in the R1,3- billion promissory note scandal, which saw him secretly sign away 19 game parks as collateral for a series of illegal off-shore loans of roughly R300-million each.
His former financial director, Nico Krugel, was sentenced to an effective six years’ jail in Nelspruit last week on 20 fraud charges for his role in the scam and for setting up two of the front companies used to siphon money out of state coffers.
Krugel was sentenced despite repaying some of the R614E000 he stole and turning state witness against his superiors. He is tipped to testify as a crucial witness against Gray and Nkambule and is expected to get a suspended sentence, fine and possible correctional supervision as a reward for his co-operation with police.
Magistrate Andre Geldenhuys said he had considered testimony from church and police character witnesses describing Krugel as a “brilliant” church treasurer, a devout reborn Christian and a family man, but Geldenhuys said these attributes should have prompted him to blow the whistle right from the beginning.
Krugel claimed during his trial that Gray masterminded the scam and ordered that at least R105E000 be paid directly to the ANC Youth League in cash, while other amounts were paid to prominent ANC politicians for party campaigning, material, accommodation and travel purposes.