Mungo Soggot
THE probe into the state’s oil trading arm, the Strategic Fuel Fund, is now expected to be finished by the middle of next month after hitting some delays.
The investigation’s preliminary findings in late March led to the suspension of the fund’s boss, Kobus van Zyl.
Don Mkhwanazi, chairman of the Central Energy Fund (CEF), the holding company for all the state’s oil assets, said this week: “I hope to get the report by mid-June. I was hoping the matter would end by the end of May. At times when people are digging, something leads to something.” He would not comment on the substance on the investigation.
The probe, ordered by Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Penuell Maduna, is being conducted by auditing firm Ntsaluba Nkonki Sizwe, despite the fact that the auditor general and Price Waterhouse audit CEF’s books. The investigation is concentrating on two sanctions-busting contracts signed in 1992 to buy oil from Egypt.
When Maduna announced that Van Zyl had been suspended his office admitted there was no evidence Van Zyl had benefited personally from the oil contracts. His office also slammed the auditor general and Price Waterhouse for failing to pick up the alleged irregularities. There is speculation in oil industry sources that Maduna’s team will be unable to prove any wrongdoing in its thorough hunt for incriminating evidence.
When Van Zyl was suspended the auditing firm had yet to talk to his boss at the time, then CEF chairman Danie Vorster. Senior oil officials believe Maduna’s office stumbled upon the payment of hefty commissions to a middleman – standard practice in sanctions-busting deals.
Walter Gcabashe, special advisor to Maduna, ducked several questions about the probe. Asked when it would end, he said this week: “Of course the investigation will end when it is concluded.”