The word scandal is so easily bandied about these days that it has lost some of its meaning. Perhaps, when contemplating the activities of Don Mkhwanazi, head of the Central Energy Fund, it is worth reminding ourselves of the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the word: something which occasions “general feeling of outrage and indignation”. Which neatly sums up the emotions suffered by taxpayers who have followed the fund shenanigans.
What we know so far is that Mkhwanazi, as head of the state oil company, decided to ignore his own board and the inconvenience of a public tender to recruit Emanuel Shaw II, a consummate rogue, on a contract worth at least R3-million a year.
Shaw’s sleazy background, which the Mail & Guardian has exposed to public view in recent weeks, is colourful to say the least.
But what is starting to emerge is that Mkhwanazi’s partnership with Shaw was based not simply on naivety, or ignorance, but on opportunism.
It now transpires, for example, that Mkhwanazi’s own law firm set up the company, International Advisory Services, which Shaw used to win the job with the energy fund.
The stench of the fund scandal has already proven too overpowering for Gordon Sibiya, the deputy director general of the Department of Minerals and Energy, who has resigned from Mkhwanazi’s board. Minister of Minerals and Energy, Penuell Maduna, has also hurriedly distanced himself from the energy fund chief, ordering – with unusual speed -a full investigation.
We would have expected Mkhwanazi to have resigned in shame by now, if only for the sheer ludicrousness of appointing someone like Emanuel Shaw II to a key state-funded post. But it seems he is shameless, as is graphically illustrated in this edition of the M&G.
Mkhwanazi has availed himself of another R12000 of taxpayer’s money to place a full- page advertisement offering the “true facts” of the case and concluding with the declaration: “Rest assured, we won’t be intimidated by anyone. Mail & Guardian or not.”
Mkhwanazi accuses us of racism, of pursuing a hidden agenda and of malicious reporting. He says Shaw and his son, Emanuel Shaw III, are amply qualified for the job.
He fails to mention that Shaw’s most intimate knowledge of the oil industry is what he acquired during the Eighties while he was sanctions-busting.
We do not intend to respond to all the windy pronouncements in the advertisement; our readers will see it for what it is – an elaborate smokescreen. But we would invite those who have the patience to pick their way through the verbiage to try and find the answers to the following pertinent questions:
* Why was nobody else allowed to bid for the job?
* Why were the state oil company’s unions not consulted over the appointment, which will see Shaw steer the company’s restructuring and possible privatisation?
* Why did Mkhwanazi not seek the approval of the Central Energy Fund board?
* If Shaw’s company, International Advisory Services, has such an “impressive list” of clients, why was it only registered last year with a nominee director, who happens to be Mkhwanazi’s lawyer?
Mkhwanazi also falls back on that tiresome formula, favoured by some bureaucrats in the new South Africa, of accusing the M&G of racism in defence of his own shortcomings.
He complains that we reported Shaw II and Shaw III landed the job, and not their fledgling company, International Advisory Services.
“When Rand Merchant Bank is appointed, no one says GT Ferreira has been appointed,” he says.
It is preposterous to compare Rand Merchant Bank and Shaw’s company, which was only created last year, and whose only other director is Ethelberg Cooper, a Liberian linked to Shaw’s scams in the West African country.
It is Mkhwanazi himself who makes much of Shaw’s qualifications, mentioning the “admirable” work he did – in his personal capacity – on an audit into the state oil company in 1995.
Mkhwanazi proudly lists Shaw’s posts in various Liberian governments – including that of the dictator, Samuel Doe – and admonishes us for failing to report on his “noble task”of promoting “the African Renaissance”.
It is disconcerting that, in building contacts with the rest of the continent, people like Mkhwanazi choose to associate with the criminal element that has reduced their countries to beggary.
If Mkhwanazi is really ignorant of the role that Shaw, Doe and Charles Taylor played in destroying Liberia, we would recommend that he read some of the literature on that country, specifically the June 1989 edition of the newsletter published by the Washington-based Association for Constitutional Democracy in Liberia.
“They have converged to pillage the wealth of Liberia. Shaw [and several ministers and public officials ] have joined Doe in forming a parasitic cabal that is dedicated to the plunder of Liberia’s resources.
“The kleptocrats in Monrovia engage in nothing of productive or long-lasting value to the nation’s economy. They simply skim off the top of whatever remains. Emanuel Shaw is simply the most representative figure of this social category.”
This week Shaw threatened us with lawsuits and interdicts and Mkhwanazi resorted to cheap accusations of racism.
Rest assured, Mr Mkhwanazi, we will not be intimidated.