Mungo Soggot
Don Mkhwanazi, the state oil chief under investigation for receiving “kickbacks”, enjoyed special acknowledgement from Deputy President Thabo Mbeki at a public gathering last weekend.
Mbeki’s office has confirmed he turned to Mkhwanazi during his speech and said the businessman was “looking good despite what the Mail & Guardian has written about him”.
Mbeki was addressing the high-profile gathering at the funeral of the late deputy director general of foreign affairs, Tebogo Mafole.
Mbeki’s representative, Ricky Naidoo, said this week Mkhwanazi was one of several people – including Mbeki’s legal adviser, Mojanke Gumbi, and Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma – who earned an affectionate mention from the deputy president.
Naidoo said it was reading too much into Mbeki’s words to call the remark an endorsement of Mkhwanazi, adding that those at the funeral to whom he had spoken to about the remark regarded it as having been made “in jest”.
Others present said Mbeki’s comments came across as an endorsement of Mkhwanazi, who has worked closely with Mbeki in the past. They said Mbeki had a brief face-to-face conversation with Mkhwanazi after his speech.
Naidoo said this should also not be taken too seriously as many people at such gatherings want to talk to the deputy president.
Mkhwanazi is being investigated by the Office for Serious Economic Offences after the M&G found evidence that he has been receiving money from his Liberian associate, Emanuel Shaw II, to whom he gave a R3-million state job.
When Shaw’s appointment was first exposed last year, Mkhwanazi sought to bolster his and Shaw’s position by announcing that Mbeki had recommended that Shaw conduct an audit of the state oil company in 1995.
It later emerged that Mbeki had merely advised the then minister of minerals and energy, Pik Botha, to conduct the audit.
Mkhwanazi also said at the time that he introduced Shaw to Mbeki in the early 1990s, but swiftly stopped all references to the deputy president when the scandal gathered momentum.
An internal inquiry appointed by Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuell Maduna into Shaw’s appointment has recommended that Mkhwanazi and his board be sacked and Shaw fired. Maduna has rejected the inquiry’s recommendations, and passed the matter to Pub lic Protector Selby Baqwa. Maduna forwarded the inquiry’s report to Mbeki’s office six weeks ago. Naidoo said Gumbi is still analysing the report and “going into the matter thoroughly”.
Maduna last week sacked his special adviser, Thulani Gcabashe, who has vigorously opposed Mkhwanazi’s behaviour and refused to endorse Maduna’s defence of Mkhwanazi.
Gcabashe broke his silence on his axing this week in an article in the M&G which concludes: “The questions now are what are Maduna’s real motives, what is his involvement with Mkhwanazi, and is this a case of ‘Maduna fiddles while South Africa burns’?”