A court case this week saw Winnie Mandela lose R100 000 following her failure to pay an air charter bill — and revealed some bizarre facts about her Co-ordinated Anti-Poverty Programmes, reports Justin Pearce
A PRINCE telling a court of law he took his orders unquestioningly from “Mummy”. A church minister and self-appointed business consultant admitting he had no knowledge of the financial records of an organisation to which he offered his services. Stories of a costly and fruitless visit to a head of state to buy diamonds, supposedly in the interests of poverty relief work.
Such revelations in the Witwatersrand Supreme Court this week painted a chaotic picture of the workings of Co-ordinated Anti-Poverty Programmes (Capp), the Section 21 company which appears to have been held together by nothing more than the magnetism of Winnie Mandela’s personality.
“I’d do anything for my mother-in-law as long as I thought it was for a good cause,” Mandela’s son-in-law Prince Musi Dhlamini of Swaziland insisted under cross-examination.
“You went to see a head of state and didn’t know whose business this was — you expect the court to believe this?” Sydney Nochumsohn, counsel for air charter company Foster Webb Hangars demanded incredulously.
“Yes,” Dhlamini replied, unperturbed. “I was there to introduce Ben du Preez to the president.” The president in question was Angola’s Eduardo dos Santos. Ben du Preez was a prospective diamond buyer, for whom Mandela had set up a meeting with Dos Santos. The meeting was to result in a diamond deal on which Mandela would take a 10 percent commission to benefit
Dhlamini never once referred to Mandela by name. She was always “my mother-in-law” or, more frequently, just “Mummy”. And the phrase “that was none of my business” ran through the prince’s testimony like a refrain, as he denied all knowledge of the reasons for the Angola mission.
“Why was a charter flight used, and not an ordinary aircraft?”
“That was none of my business.”
“What was Capp’s project?”
“To raise funds in whatever way they thought possible.”
“What was the purpose of this trip?”
“I didn’t know. I was asked by Mummy to take a delegation to Angola. I assumed Mummy was working for Capp and part of this would be Capp’s business. I didn’t ask Mummy. It was none of my business.”
“Reverend Khumalo — the Capp consultant — what was he there to do?”
“That was none of my business.”
Rev Tamasanqa Khumalo, who offered his services as a business adviser to Capp, revealed that his own knowledge of Capp’s affairs was scanty. Khumalo told the court that he had never seen any business records which would have indicated whether Mandela had indeed booked the charter on behalf of Capp.
Yet Khumalo’s part-time presence in the organisation seemed to suggest that he was the only person with any financial skills at all. Khumalo said he had offered Mandela and Capp his services as a business consultant at no charge when he realised that Mandela was being exploited because she was helping companies to establish business contacts in African countries without demanding payment for this service. At the same time she was financing Capp out of her own pocket to the tune of R20 000 a month, he testified.
Khumalo advised Mandela to charge a commission when she set up business deals. It was one such deal which led Mandela to book a charter flight to Luanda in June 1993, the costs of which she was ordered to pay this week.
Through her long-standing associate Peter Mokaba, Mandela had met Ben du Preez who wanted to buy diamonds in Angola — Mandela, as a friend of Dos Santos, arranged a meeting between Du Preez and Dos Santos. At Du Preez’ request, she also arranged the flight to Luanda.
Capp was set up as a Section 21 company in 1992 by Mandela and eight other directors, its stated objective being to combat poverty. Capp was in financial trouble by 1993, amid allegations that directors were using the company for their own gain. The Section 21 company still exists, but appears not to have operated since 1994.
Capp appears to have operated on the basis of ad hoc decisions made by Mandela, sometimes acting on the advice of Khumalo. The court heard that the initial arrangements for the flight had been made by Mandela herself — the final letter of confirmation bore Capp’s letterhead and was signed by Mandela, but did not state in what capacity she was signing. Fatally for Mandela, Du Preez’ name was not mentioned in the letter, which pointed to Mandela being solely responsible for the cost of the flight.
A post-dated cheque was offered in payment for the flight, the drawer of the cheque being Fortune Real Estate, whose owner, Zac Brainen, had also met Mandela through Mokaba. This arrangement was justified on the grounds that Capp had no cheque account. The cheque bounced.
The Angola trip turned out to be an expensive fiasco. Dos Santos ended the meeting after five minutes, saying that South Africans wishing to buy Angolan diamonds could do so through an agent in