A war of words has been declared between Absa and Millenium magazine over an article defending former Tollgate chairman Julian Askin, reports Reg Rumney
A number of puzzling questions are thrown up in the squabble between Absa Bank and Cape-based Millenium magazine over a series of articles it has been running on fugitive Julian Askin and the collapsed Tollgate group.
In its October edition, Millenium publisher Hugh Murray and executive editor Paul Bell have written another chapter in a fascinating Le Carre-style tale. It portrays former Tollgate chairman Askin as the innocent victim of a conspiracy by South Africa’s largest banking group, eating smuggled fruit to keep up his strength as he battled extradition to South Africa from an Italian jail cell.
This week Absa took out paid advertisements in many newspapers, including the Mail & Guardian, to put its side of the story.
And now Murray and Bell have replied in a general Press release to the Absa ad.
Among the many claims and counter-claims, the most serious centre on the contention that Absa cushioned its Tollgate losses by misusing a R1-billion “lifeboat” or support package supplied by the Reserve Bank, and that it wilfully destroyed a major company, in the process hounding an innocent Askin.
The most recent Millenium article quotes extensively an affadavit by former MD of Tollgate, Volkskas and Trust Bank, Hennie Diedericks, whom Askin once blamed for his plight. The article has as its plaintive theme the now joint efforts of the once sworn foes to prove their innocence; Diedericks also having been pursued, like Askin, by the Tollgate liquidators.
Diedericks is the source of the claim that the support amounted to R1-billion.
Absa denies any losses were charged to or paid for by the support package. Indeed, it wrote off R215-million on Tollgate during the year ended March 1993.
Murray and Bell reply that the Tollgate losses were much higher than R215-million.
Briefly, Absa says that Diedericks has switched sides after his offer to sue Askin, Millenium predecessor Leadership and others for defamation on Absa’s behalf was turned down.
There are claims and counter-claims, in the process of which Judge Berman’s scathing comments about Askin in the Cape Supreme Court are quoted — and dismissed by Millenium as being out of place in a civil action.
In granting a provisional sequestration order against Askin’s estate, Berman noted, “… I find that respondent’s (Askin’s) protestations as to the existence and extent of his liabilities are as patently dishonest as the course of conduct he pursued in the business affairs of the companies with which he concerned himself, which was one of thievery and roguery on a grand scale.”
Two questions emerge:
* Why will Absa Bank not disclose the nature and extent of the support package? Many, if not all, of the serious charges made by Millenium could be cleared up immediately if it, or the Reserve Bank, did so.
* Why has Askin, if he is indeed innocent, persistently refused to return to South Africa to clear his name? Why has he chosen to conduct the battle from afar?
Readers can study Absa’s reply in full in the pages of the Mail & Guardian this week. Millenium has promised further articles to take up the crusade once more.