Stefaans Brummer
BOTSWANA authorities are reviewing charges of trust fund embezzlement against South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Safety and Security, Joe Matthews — who skipped bail there in 1985 — and may ask for his
An official in the Botswana attorney-general’s office this week said charges against Matthews “have not been withdrawn, neither have they been reactivated”. He said the AG’s office still had to decide whether to lodge a request for his extradition.
“First we did not know where he was; then we saw him at the negotiations (on the Inkatha Freedom Party team at Kempton Park in 1993). We did not want to take him in at the time. Now we know he is there in South Africa, and he is a deputy minister. We have to decide,” the official said.
Botwana Crime Investigation Division chief Edwin Batshu confirmed his department was reviewing the Matthews file “to see if it is necessary” to ask for his
Matthews, IFP deputy minister and son of former ANC leader and treason trialist Professor ZK Matthews, stands accused of having taken trust funds from two clients while acting as an attorney in Botswana during
Matthews did not respond to inquiries this week, but in a 1993 interview with the Botswana newspaper Mmegi said he was “not interested” in returning to Botswana to face the charges. He maintained his innocence, and was quoted as saying: “I take decisions according to what I think is in the best of my interests.”
A spokesman for President Nelson Mandela this week said Mandela was aware of media reports on Matthews, but that he had not sought meetings either with Matthews or Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi to discuss the matter, although it was “a matter for obvious concern”.
“It would be naive to believe the president can deal with the matter as if the deputy minister owes allegiance to his (Mandela’s) party. But it is a matter of obvious concern.”