ANC members who are under investigation by the party are involved in the company alleged to be behind the bid to pay for the ill-fated Aids play. Stefaans BrUmmer and Ann Eveleth report
THE investment company named in this week’s controversy over the ill-fated R10,5-million Sarafina II rescue bid is run by a motley crew of African National Congress-aligned businessmen — three of whom featured in a drugs probe by the party’s intelligence wing two years ago.
The R500-million investment firm SAM-Sisonke, which is backed by the Malaysian concern Asia Pacific, was named by the Sunday Times as closely connected to the bid to rescue Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma from the Aids-play bungle. The “white donor” referred to by Public Protector Selby Baqwa was a “front”, it claimed.
On Wednesday, President Nelson Mandela announced the donor had withdrawn his offer to pick up the Sarafina II tab. Malcolm Serman, the white donor’s lawyer, said the offer had been withdrawn as “what had been intended as a solution had become an additional problem” for Zuma due to “the growing acrimonious media debate”.
Baqwa, in his final report on the aborted donation, on Wednesday said he had not found it necessary to “go on a witch hunt on the basis of unsubstantiated rumours in the press”, as Auditor General Henri Kluever, once the donation was made, would establish whether the donor was bona fide — and that he stuck to his decision not to expose his identity.
Baqwa said “it would appear from press reports that [SAM-Sisonke chair] Vivian Reddy had already denied any connection with the donor” and that Zuma assured him “there is to the best of her knowledge no connection between [Reddy] and the donor”.
But Reddy this week stopped short of flatly denying to the Mail & Guardian his involvement. He said: “No money has been transferred from my company to the Health Department.”
Media speculation has also had it that the true origin of the intended funding went back to a source “close to the president”. Mandela’s spokesman Parks Mankahlana denied there was any truth to this. “The president told me in no uncertain terms this is not true.”
Reddy, asked whether he would have been one of what was alleged to have been a three-stage process intending to hand over the donation, said: “I know all three tiers. I’m involved in SAM-Sisonke, I know all the minister’s friends and I’m known in the president’s office.” In a Durban press report after the announcement of the donor’s withdrawal, Reddy offered to stand in and pick up the tab.
Reddy’s co-directors in SAM-Sisonke include four former members of the ANC’s Department of Intelligence and Security (DIS), which was later integrated into the new National Intelligence Agency (NIA). They are Sam Prakash, Lawrence Petersen, Liza “Gibson” Njenje and Jomo Mavuso.
Petersen and Mavuso were both subjects of an ANC DIS probe into drug smuggling allegations in 1994, and both were suspended as bodyguards to Mandela that December. It was reported at the time that the probe was looking at an entertainment venture, the New African Foundation, in which Petersen, Mavuso and Njenje were reportedly directors.
The New African Foundation had been the brainchild of Austrian businessman Rainer Maria Moringer, who earned a reputation as a “sanctions-buster” when he set up an aircraft factory — which made “spotter” aircraft said to be suitable for military application — in the Ciskei in the mid-Eighties.
Moringer was reportedly involved in plotting an abortive coup against Ciskei leader Lennox Sebe in 1989. That same year a warrant for his arrest on multi-million rand fraud charges was issued in Austria. Two years later he was acquitted of R5,5- million forex fraud charges in Johannesburg. It could not be established this week whether Moringer is still in South Africa.
An intelligence operative this week told the M&G that Petersen and Mavuso’s suspension followed an incident at Lanseria Airport involving a large Mandrax haul uncovered by another DIS member, whose name was given to the M&G. The operative claimed the incident also put an end to Njenje’s ambitions to fill a senior post in the NIA or its external counterpart, the South African Secret Service (SASS).
DIS spokesman Billy Masetla was reported early last year to have said the investigation was “nearly complete”. But this week the end result remained unclear. A spokesman for Masetla, who is now director-general of SASS, referred inquiries to his NIA counterpart, Dr Sizakele Sigxashe, who he said had “signed the final report on the matter”. An NIA spokesman said Sigxashe would not comment as it was “an ANC matter”. Petersen, Mavuso and Njenje could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
Reddy, who is also the multi-millionare managing director of Durban-based Edison Power, made his fortune filling electrical contracts for the old tricameral parliament’s House of Delegates, but has built close relationships with several ANC leaders.
Described by his critics as a man who “always backs the winning horse”, Reddy first built relations with ANC members aligned to Public Works Minister Jeff Radebe, who then served as chairman of the ANC’s southern KwaZulu-Natal region. When Jacob Zuma won the.race for the KwaZulu-Natal ANC leadership in the run-up to the 1994 election, Reddy moved quickly to build links with him.
Prakash said this week that “some of the speculation [about the Sarafina donor] is becoming embarrassing. Somebody is on a fishing trip and they are trying to point fingers at people who have been involved with the struggle.”
Prakash had worked with Petersen, Mavuso and Njenje for some time and said SAM-Sisonke was formed primarily as a construction company seeking involvement in South Africa’s housing industry. The company also intended building clinics and schools, he said.
Reddy told the M&G after a Tuesday telephone conference with Baqwa that “the Sarafina donor will never be known, or else there will be no donation”. He said he understood Kleuver had also accepted the donor’s anonymity after he met Baqwa to discuss the issue on Tuesday.
When the proposed donor withdrew his offer the next day, Zuma blamed the media for not respecting the donor’s wish to remain anonymous. The M&G established that Reddy flew unexpectedly to Cape Town about the time the announcement was made that the donor had withdrawn his offer.
Reddy earlier said the donor’s anonymity condition was rooted in a fear that “his other business will suffer. Anytime he wants to bid for a government contract, everyone will start asking questions.”