Mungo Soggot
The panel appointed to investigate Emanuel Shaw II’s top state oil job finished its probe this week after hearing testimony from Gordon Sibiya, the senior government official leading the charge against Shaw’s R3-million appointment.
The acting director general of the Department of Minerals and Energy, Dick Bakker, said this week that after hearing Sibiya’s testimony the panel felt it had sufficient material to make its recommendations.
Bakker, who heads the panel, said there was no need to hear evidence from Thulani Gcabashe, special adviser to Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuell Maduna. Gcabashe, who was to have testified this week, raised the alarm about Shaw’s appointment last October.
Sibiya, the deputy director general of the Department of Minerals and Energy, tendered his resignation from the board of the state oil company last December after learning about Shaw’s appointment.
He also called for the head of the state oil chief, Don Mkhwanazi, who appointed the company named in Shaw’s contract, International Advisory Services, a year after his Durban lawyers set up the company.
The Cabinet rejected Sibiya’s request to step down from the board of the state oil company, which has recently lost a string of senior employees.
The Mail & Guardian has established that Shaw, a representative of some notoriously corrupt Liberian governments, and Mkhwanazi were close associates before Shaw was handed the job.
Bakker said the panel – which includes three civil servants and a corporate lawyer – will compile its draft report on Sunday. The panel is expected not only to examine the contract, but also to pass judgment on the conduct of the state oil officials who appointed Shaw.
Bakker said the panel would hand its final report to Maduna in the next two weeks, after which Maduna is expected to release its findings to the public.