Bantu Holomisa says Sol Kerzner paid for it, but host Paul Ekon says he and other businessmen bore the cost of Thabo Mbeki’s birthday party, writes Stefaans BrUmmer
PAUL EKON, the businessman who hosted Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s 50th birthday party — and who Bantu Holomisa claims was merely a go-between for casino magnate Sol Kerzner — has a chequered past and a list of friends reading like a who’s who of Johannesburg’s glitterati.
Axed deputy minister Holomisa dumped the ANC in what could be one of its most damaging corruption crises last week when he claimed Kerzner — seeking help in quashing his pending Transkei corruption trial – — had bankrolled the ANC’s 1994 election campaign to the tune of R2-million, had given free hotel accommodation to Sports Minister Steve Tshwete, and had paid for Mbeki’s 1992 birthday bash.
The ANC immediately denied all charges, saying a “private businessman” had paid for Mbeki’s party and that Tshwete’s 1994 stay to attend a boxing bout at Sun City had been funded by boxing promoter Rodney Berman.
Berman soon denied he had paid, while there were strong indications from government this week that the R2-million funding could well be admitted to. Holomisa this week maintained he had “privileged information” that Mbeki’s party, which was held at Ekon’s home in Johannesburg’s stately Houghton suburb, was contributed to by Kerzner and that Ekon had been a “middleman” for Kerzner.
Ekon, a 36-year-old former beau of Anneline Kriel and entrepreneur who is alleged to have left the country in haste last year because he had been implicated in a criminal investigation by the police Gold and Diamond Branch, told the M&G this week Kerzner attended the party, but claimed he did not fund it. “Sol, Holomisa and Thabo are all good buddies of mine … But it had nothing to do with Sol whatsoever.”
Ekon claimed the costs had been shared by himself, clothing industrialist Charles Priebatsch and tailor-entrepreneur Yusuf Surtee — contributing R1 000 or R2 000 each. Drinks had been “sponsored”, he said, but did not name a source.
However, an acquaintance this week said Ekon had personally told him in 1993 that he had made his house available at Kerzner’s request.
Both Priebatsch and Surtee are friends of President Nelson Mandela. Surtee, who has also had contact with Kerzner, has long been known as the “ANC tailor”, supplying leaders of the organisation including Mandela with top of the range clothing from his Sandton boutique.
Priebatsch, who hosted Mandela when Michael Jackson visited him on his birthday last month, this week said: “Yusuf Surtee has been a friend of Mandela for many years. That is how I became a friend of the Mandela family. I am close friends with his [Mandela’s] daughters, and with Madiba.”
Priebatsch also said he, Ekon and Surtee had sponsored the Mbeki bash. “It was round about R1 000 a person. All I remember was that the office [the ANC’s Department of International Affairs, which Mbeki headed at the time] asked us to give the surprise party for him. That was all there was. There was really no Sol in it.”
He said it was “not a major party” and claimed there were “a lot less” than the reported 200 revellers. A newspaper report at the time claimed party-goers were treated to a “lavish buffet for 200 guests” including ANC leaders Cyril Ramaphosa, Joe Slovo, Ronnie Kasrils, Gertrude Shope and Aziz Pahad, political luminaries Helen Suzman and Wimpie de Klerk, and “top businessmen” including Kerzner.
Priebatsch said he had a letter of thanks from the ANC for giving the party, but that he would release it only if Mbeki wanted it, and not to the media. “I don’t want to attract that kind of publicity. I also don’t think it is ethical.”
Johannesburg-reared Ekon, who is of Greek extraction, first joined the fast set of the city when he inherited a large amount, said to be about R3-million, from his mother about 10 years ago. Friends say he lost much on betting and high-living. In the early 1990s he met Anneline Kriel, Kerzner’s former wife, through born-again Christian meetings he held at his house, and they dated until she left him for husband-to-be Philip Tucker.
He ran a restaurant, the Hot Tin Roof, in the rich Johannesburg suburb of Rosebank at the time, and marketed Kriel’s perfume range through his cosmetics outlet, Accent, in nearby Hyde Park. Both businesses folded.
Those he liked to count among his friends and acquaintances included (later convicted fraudster) Greg Blank, Kerzner, Dali Tambo, at least one of the Mandela daughters, Surtee, Priebatsch, Clive Beck (son of millionaire Graham Beck) and members of the horse-racing fraternity. Among his political contacts he counted Mbeki, Holomisa, Winnie Mandela and Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad. Said one of his acquaintances: “He’s a very sweet guy, quite flamboyant and very wealthy … He was a rich kid who didn’t really understand politics. He was very well-meaning, and then he discovered the ANC.”
Ekon’s other business interests appear from company records to have included investments, trading, horses, furniture, and gemstones. The latter field, an acquaintance said, brought him in contact with intelligence agent Eugene Reilly — who died under mysterious circumstances after he allegedly warned of Chris Hani’s impending assassination — and at odds with former Civil Co-operation Bureau operative Ferdi Barnard.
Last year, acquaintances say, he “suddenly” left South Africa for Britain amid speculation he was the subject of a police investigation into forex irregularities involving precious metals or gems. Ekon denied the forex allegations were the reason he left, saying a business opportunity had attracted him. He said he returned last October and was given assurances by a police Gold and Diamond Branch colonel he was not under investigation. The Mail & Guardian has reason to believe this is not true.
Kerzner, meanwhile, toned down his original statement on the Holomisa claims. He was reported on Sunday to have said: “I find Holomisa’s allegations so outrageously false that they are not worthy of comment.”
But a day later, while denying the Mbeki or Tshwete sponsorships, he left open the possibility he had funded the ANC when he said in a statement: “All contributions I make to social, charitable and political groups are for causes in which I believe and I have never expected or accepted favours as a result.”