Don Mkhwanazi has been enjoying Emanuel Shaw II’s largesse since the controversial contract was arranged, reports Mungo Soggot
Emanuel Shaw II, the Liberian politician handed a R3-million state oil job, has been bankrolling the man who gave him the contract, Central Energy Fund chair Don Mkhwanazi.
Bank records show that one of Shaw’s South African companies has been channelling money into the account of a company owned by Mkhwanazi.
The account pays the R36 000 monthly instalment on a R2,4-million house Mkhwanazi bought last year in Linksfield Ridge, one of Johannesburg’s most exclusive suburbs. He also owns two houses in KwaZulu-Natal. The account also pays monthly instalments on a car.
The records show that Shaw, a highly creative financier, has direct access to the account, which means he can deposit and withdraw cash whenever he wants.
A government commission of inquiry into Shaw’s appointment has already recommended that his contract be shredded, and that Mkhwanazi be sacked as chair of the Central Energy Fund. Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuell Maduna has yet to act on the commission’s findings.
The commission did not find any evidence of financial ties between Shaw and Mkhwanazi.
The bank documents provide that proof, and could expose Mkhwanazi, a public official, to a criminal charge of corruption. The chief of the Office for Serious Economic Offences, Jan Swanepoel, this week declared his willingness to investigate.
It is not clear how long the two have jointly run the bank account, though the account is in the name of Juno Investments, a company Mkhwanazi formed in Durban in 1991. He is Juno’s sole director.
It is understood the tax authorities believe Juno is dormant. But the bank records show that large sums of money – up to R50 000 a shot – wash through the account each month.
The account from which Shaw is transferring money into Juno’s account was opened last April – three months before Mkhwanazi quietly recruited Shaw and his son as the Central Energy Fund’s key advisers.
Shaw is suing the Mail & Guardian for R7- million, following articles that prompted Maduna’s commission of inquiry.
The commission found Mkhwanazi’s relationship with Shaw was too close for the Durban entrepreneur to have recruited Shaw without putting the post out to tender.
The relationship between Mkhwanazi and Shaw runs deep. The two live less than 300m apart in Linksfield Ridge. Mkhwanazi introduced Shaw to senior African National Congress leaders in the early 1990s, and later hired Shaw as a consultant for his black empowerment initiative, the National Empowerment Trust, which includes on its board a string of prominent figures from the black business community.
The bank documents show that the National Empowerment Trust Investment Fund also pumps money into Mkwanazi’s Juno account. One of the instalments was for R50 000.
Shaw invests in the Juno account through a little-known Johannesburg-based company, Finance Tech Consulting Corporation, of which Shaw is chair. Recent bank statements show Finance Tech paid more than R18 440 into the Juno account in one shot on January 2. Juno also transfers money into Finance Tech’s account, paying R20 000 on January 7.
The deposits into Juno from the National Empowerment Trust raise further questions about the status of the black empowerment venture.
Mkhwanazi hired Shaw’s Liberian colleague and long-time associate Ethelbert Cooper to help set up the trust in 1996.
But two of the trust’s top executives – Durban businessman Oscar Dhlomo and Diamond Board chief Gibson Thula – quit soon after. They left after Mkhwanazi used a large chunk of the trust’s R5-million start-up money to pay himself and Cooper.
Mkhwanazi has shrugged off Maduna’s commission of inquiry’s findings and has threatened to go to the high court to clear his name.
It is understood he and Shaw spent several hours last weekend at Maduna’s Johannesburg home trying to persuade the minister to keep them on.
When Maduna appointed the commission, he said he would stand by its findings and release its report to the public. But when the commission finished, he passed its findings to the deputy president and the president after releasing a statement that listed the commission report’s salient points.
Maduna has also since expressed concern that he might not be able legally to rescind Shaw’s contract. And the minister has been approached by at least one senior Central Energy Fund management official to retain some of the company’s board members.
Despite Maduna’s foot-dragging, his department advertised for new board members of the fund last weekend.
Mkhwanazi and his board held what should be their last board meeting at the fund’s headquarters in Sandton this week. The written agenda for the meeting included a discussion of the role of the minerals and energy deputy director general, Gordon Sibiya, in the commission of inquiry. Sibiya gave the commission a devastating two-hour testimony in which he documented precisely how Mkhwanazi had ridden roughshod over basic rules.
Sibiya, who was also on the fund’s board, has led the charge against Mkhwanazi. It is understood he was barred from this week’s board meeting until the rest of the board had caucused about trying to keep their jobs.
Mkhwanazi was faxed a list of questions on Wednesday. He was unavailable for comment up until the M&G went to press. Shaw switched off his cellphone when first contacted by the M&G on Thursday. Two messages were subsequently left on his voicemail service. Shaw flew to Liberia later in the day.