Marion Edmunds
The principal director in Emanuel Shaw II’s fledgling consultancy, International Advisory Services (IAS), is working in South Africa illegally.
Home affairs officials confirmed this week that Ethelbert Cooper, a Liberian businessman linked to a number of Shaw’s questionable deals, is not supposed to be working in this country.
It is not clear how Cooper – who is also an associate of state oil chief Don Mkhwanazi – managed to get into the country, but officials say they will pursue him.
”If Mr Cooper is working in Sandton, he is doing so illegally and should the department be informed of his residential or business addresses the matter will be pursued further,” a home affairs representative said.
Cooper was unavailable for comment . The Mail & Guardian established this week that Mkhwanazi played a crucial role in getting Shaw and his family into South Africa, helping them evade the red tape which entangles less well-connected visitors.
Home affairs effectively naturalised Shaw, his wife and four children in 1996, because the department was persuaded that his skills were invaluable to South Africa. None of the Shaw family need immigration permits to live in South Africa, and can come and go as they please.
Shaw’s effortless entry into South Africa runs counter to the department’s supposed attempts to tighten controls on foreign work-seekers and immigrants. Applicants must prove themselves to be of exceptional value for their application to be seriously considered.
”The exemptions were granted on 24 June 1996 in the light of representations made regarding the knowledge and experience of Mr Shaw that could be extensively utilised in the RSA,” the department says.
The representations included one from Mkhwanazi, from Charles Stride, special adviser to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, and from Neo Moikangoa, executive vice- president for technology and development at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
Stride, himself one of South Africa’s highest-paid government consultants, says he was asked to write a letter reflecting work Shaw had already undertaken. He says he cannot remember who asked him to write the letter.
Shaw’s son and fellow Central Energy Fund (CEF) consultant, Emanuel Shaw III, was able to ride into South Africa on his father’s ticket. In his application forms of 1996, he was registered as a student, but on arrival in South Africa took up the job at the CEF.
Home affairs says Shaw III was a student of finance at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the United States. The Shaws also promised to bring R150 000 into South Africa, but a home affairs representative said that the department had not checked whether the money had been deposited.
Home affairs officials say they could reconsider the Shaw family’s status, depending on the outcome of the probe into the IAS contract recently ordered by Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuel Maduna.
Maduna, also a friend of Shaw’s, was home affairs deputy minister at the time the Liberian was waltzing through the immigration process.
Shaw’s experience is not uncommon. M&G inquiries to home affairs show the rich, famous and infamous tend to enjoy a smoother ride through South African customs than most.
South Africa is home to a number of renowned international characters, seeking to escape attention in their home countries. These include American dentist Robert Hall, controversial Sicilian businessman Vito Palazzolo, Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher, German financier Jurgen Harksen and the late Princess Diana’s younger brother (and alleged multiple adulterer) Earl Charles Spencer.
Most come in loaded with cash, which seems to blind home affairs officials rather than raise their suspicions. Officials say that they seldom query the origin of the money, which is presented as a guarantee of an applicant’s bona fides.
Senior home affairs officials say poorly paid clerks are often bribed -though there is no suggestion that the people named above would stoop to such measures – to ease applications through.
Home affairs says Palazzolo obtained South African citizenship through naturalisation in September 1994.
”The department was aware of Mr Palazollo’s history, but was nonetheless prepared to grant him citizenship in view of the fact that the security authorities had no objection in this regard.” Officials say the department can reconsider Palazollo’s presence in South Africa if ”negative information” about him is brought to their attention.
The department says it is unable to substantiate any allegations against Thatcher – which they picked up from the local press – when considering his application for permanent residence in 1996. Thatcher brought in more than R1,3- million, describing himself as an ”investor”.
Harksen, whom home affairs now wants to leave the country, came in December 1993 with a seductive R7,8-million. Nine months later, it emerged he was being sought on fraud charges in Germany, and the department withdrew his permanent residence permit.
Three years later, Harksen is still in the country, fighting extradition with the best and most expensive legal team South Africa can provide.
Charles Spencer is here on a temporary work permit, extended to September 1998. Home affairs originally said that his work permit qualified him to conduct his own business, but now says the aristocrat is a freelance journalist.
”It’s a world-wide recognised concept that the foreign new media agencies make use of their own nationals for media coverage,” the department insists.
Spencer is currently battling with his estranged wife, Victoria Lockwood, over divorce proceedings in the Cape High Court.