Mungo Soggot
The state oil company was hit with two key resignations this week as the saga surrounding Emanuel Shaw II’s R3-million appointment raged on.
Finance chief Sarel Cilliers tendered his resignation and was asked to leave the Central Energy Fund’s Sandton headquarters – a day after Gordon Sibiya, director general of the Department of Minerals and Energy and a member of the fund’s board, announced he was stepping down. Cilliers managed about half the staff at the fund’s head office, and other resignations could follow if no action is taken against Shaw’s appointment. Cilliers declined to discuss his resignation.
Shaw, and the other main protagonist in the scandal – state oil chief Don Mkhwanazi – remained unscathed at the time of going to press. Both Sibiya and the Chemical Workers’ Industrial Union called for Mkhwanazi’s resignation this week over his appointment of Shaw.
The fund’s board met on Thursday afternoon to discuss Shaw’s appointment and Mkhwan- azi’s fate. It is understood some board members were particularly anxious about the conflict of interest caused by Shaw’s other job at private fuel company Engen. Mkhwanazi and the rest of the board were unaware of Shaw’s Engen job until it was reported in the press.
It is now a month since the Mail & Guardian reported how Shaw and his son, Emanuel Shaw III, pulled off their lucrative advisory jobs at the fund. The M&G exposed the strong links between Mkhwanazi and Shaw – who got the job without going through any selection process.
Mkhwanazi has stressed that the job was not given to the Shaws – who occupy offices at the fund – but to their company, International Advisory Services. The company was in fact set up by Mkhwanazi’s own Durban law firm last year.
The law firm, Mooney, Ford & Partners, said Shaw was never a director of the company while it was managing it. International Advisory Services’s new law firm said Shaw was not a director. Its auditors said the company had applied for a change of directorships.
Minerals and Energy Minister Penuell Maduna was advised by an aide on October 19 to suspend the fund’s board and dump Shaw. After the M&G broke the story, he appointed a departmental inquiry which is expected to release its findings at the end of the month.