Rehana Rossouw
THE Ministry of Health is still refusing point blank to lift the veil of secre cy shrouding the name of the donor who is bailing out its beleaguered Aids pla y Sarafina II.
“There’s nothing sinister about it; anonymous people make contributions to cha rity organisations for the benefit of the public all the time, and the public isn’t entitled to know who they are,” said Health Ministry spokesman Vincent H longwane.
Told that the ministry was not a charitable institution but was headed by elec ted representatives, Hlongwane’s only response was: “I am not the best judge o f that, but I don’t see anything wrong with what is being done.”
He refused to disclose whether the donor had been approached by the ministry t o bail out Sarafina II or whether he had come forward on his own. The donor ha s established a legal trust before any money is disbursed.
“He specifically made the request to us that he remain anonymous and we respec t that. We thought it was only fair to go along with that wish,” Hlongwane sai d. “He will cover all the costs incurred in the project. How much that is depe nds on a new contract with [Sarafina II director Mbongeni Ngema’s] Committed A rtists if it is agreeable to both parties.
“We are in the process of drawing up the contract and we’re not ready to go in to the details of it yet.”
Hlongwane would also not be drawn on how many creditors were owed money for th e production costs of Sarafina II. Keiser and Gentry Travel is seeking a summa ry judgment against Ngema to recover about 200 000.
Political observers warned this week that the government was setting a bad pre cedent if it allowed an individual to enter into an agreement like this with a ministry.
“Very few people do things for nothing. What this agreement could mean is that the minister could be indebted to some anonymous person. He may well want fav
ours at some future date and will obviously have quite a strong bargaining pos ition in that case,” said University of Cape Town political studies head Profe ssor Robert Schrire.
“While the intentions here may be perfectly honourable, society has to make th e worst possible assumptions about people in power in order to make democracy work, no matter how unfair that may seem.”
Democracy will only work if society insists on proper accounting and auditing
from people in power.”
He warned that Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma was setting a dangerous preceden t. Other people with less honourable intentions than her funder could approach other government departments with a similar deal and use that leverage to gai
n favour for themselves.