The Dolphin Group which has secured huge interests to develop tourism in Mpumalanga is struggling to defend its chief, reports Justin Arenstein
THE public relations drive by nature reserve heavyweight Dolphin Group stumbled this week after Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi’s office denied it had issued letters vindicating Dolphin chief Ketan Somaia.
The supposed letter was used by the Mpumalanga Parks Board – which has cut a deal giving Dolphin exclusive rights to prime nature reserves in the province – to dismiss concerns regarding Somaia’s business dealings in Kenya.
Somaia’s South African lawyers have previously used two other letters from Kenya supposedly vindicating Somaia to try to head off M&G articles on Dolphin and Somaia. The validity of both of these letters is now also in question.
Somaia did, however, concede this week that consultation over Dolphin’s deal – which gives it exclusive commercial development rights to reserves including the Blyde River Canyon for 50 years – should have been better handled.
The deal has outraged rural communities, conservationists and land claim activists, who say affected communities have still not been consulted.
Somaia said he planned a series of presentations for local communities, and that he was prepared to revise Dolphin’s contract with the board “in the interests of affected communities, the deal itself and South Africa at large”.
Concerns about Somaia’s past business dealings include allegations that he was involved in a defaulted R35-million arms contract with the Kenyan government.
Mpumalanga Parks Board chief Alan Gray said earlier this month that the letter from Moi cleared Somaia of involvement.
But Kenya’s high commissioner to South Africa, Justice Mudavadi, said Gray’s claim about the letter was “very strange and surprising”, and that Moi would never address another country’s officials directly.
“Protocol demands that my president would only write a letter to his counterpart, President Mandela, and not someone who is a relatively junior official – especially without informing my office. I know of no such letter and find this whole thing very strange and surprising,” he explained.
Repeated requests this week to Gray for copies of the alleged letter and comment from the board on the Kenyan denial were unsuccessful.
But Somaia, who was in Johannesburg this week spearheading Dolphin’s public relations roadshow, also refuted the existence of the letter, saying that Moi would have no motivation for writing it.
Somaia however reiterated that he was innocent of any wrongdoing in Kenya, where he has declined at least three formal requests to testify about the R35-million contract before Kenya’s Public Accounts Committee.
He said he was linked to the two London companies which had defaulted on the contract and that he still served as their commissioned agent in Kenya.
“But I am not a director or shareholder in either company. I decided not to testify because the formalities of finally delivering on the contract had begun and I therefore felt that there was no need for me to appear before the Public Accounts Committee,” he said.
The committee tabled a recommendation before the Kenyan Parliament last month calling for the government not to enter into any further contracts or agreements with Somaia or any companies associated with him.
Committee chairman Michael Wamalwa wrote to Somaia’s South African lawyers on December 3 stating that the Kenyan billionaire no longer needed to testify. In a second letter, dated January 17, Wamalwa said Somaia had helped the government recover 80% of the outstanding order.
Both letters were used by lawyers Cliffe Decker and Todd, to pre-empt articles the M&G planned to publish.
Other committee members however have denied the validity of Wamalwa’s letters. Committee member Martin Chikuku said Wamalwa had been forced to apologise publicly for issuing the letters.
“We were shocked to hear that a letter absolving Somaia had been issued, because there is no way that he has been cleared,” he told the M&G.
“The committee firmly believes that Somaia directly benefited from this episode because if a man has no interest or ownership in a company, then how can he force them to suddenly – after seven years – begin honouring their contracts?”
Wamalwa’s election campaign coalition partners, the Democracy Party, also publicly cut ties with him last week after the apology, but retained their links with his party, Ford Kenya.
Moolman Mentz, a member of the Mpumalanga legislature team which recently returned from a tour of Dolphin’s businesses in Kenya and Dubai, said he had quizzed Somaia and was satisfied with his explanations.
“Africa is not for sissies,” Mentz said. “In any case, if you look at the amounts involved, then the alleged misappropriation is like a drop of water in the sea compared to the Kenyan economy – or even the Dolphin economy. All businessmen have at least some deals that go sour and some that work out.”
Mentz said current negative publicity about Somaia and Dolphin were not in the province’s interests.
“It is a fallacy to think the Mpumalanga government will ever subject investors to tender processes or in-depth investigations,” he said.
“If we create the perception that investors will be investigated in this manner, it is doubtful that [we] will attract any investors at all,” he added.