Ann Eveleth
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said this week he would ask Judge Willem Heath’s corruption watchdog to probe the involvement of close associates of Thabo Mbeki in the privatisation of tourism parastatal Aventura.
Holomisa said Deputy President Mbeki and his entire office “should have recused itself” from a Cabinet committee set up to adjudicate on the bid because his legal adviser, Advocate Mojanku Gumbi; his wife, Zanele Mbeki; Department of Agriculture Director General Bongi Njobe-Mbuli, and “other friends” were linked to one of five companies shortlisted for the bid.
Gumbi and Mbeki are directors of the Wo-men’s Development Bank, the investment arm of which is one of three members of the Empowerment Alliance, which holds 30% of shares in the Phalafala Liesure Consortium, a short-listed bidder. The consortium is wholly financed by Sun International subsidiary Kersaf and Genbel Securities.
Gumbi brokered a settlement last month with land claimants and Mpumalanga Land Claims Commissioner Durkje Gilfillan, both of which had attempted to halt privatisation pending the resolution of land claims on two Aventura resorts at Blydepoort and Swadini, Mpumalanga. The two parties listed Mbeki as a respondent. Ironically Gumbi’s involvement – as Mbeki’s legal adviser – was welcomed by both as it led to resolution of the impasse.
But Holomisa said this week that Mbeki’s office should have pleaded a conflict of interest and directed an independent firm to handle the matter.
Gumbi told the Mail&Guardian she had been unaware of any conflict of interest when she entered the legal dispute. She said the Women’s Development Bank had three separate arms, including the bank, a non-governmental section 21 company of which she was a founding director; a trust which holds the savings of the bank’s rural women clients; and an investment company of which she is not a part. She said Njobe-Mbuli was even less involved, as she had suspended her participation in the bank. Mbeki had resigned as an employee of the bank – but remained a director – after her husband’s election as deputy president.
Gumbi’s explanation was supported by another Women’s Development Bank director, Transnet chair and head of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Unfair Business Practices Committee Louise Tager. Tager said: “These are two separate things. The investment company has its own board of directors and takes its own decisions.” But Tager could not explain why her name and others appeared on the bid.
Holomisa said: “The onus is on them to say whether they have resigned [their bank positions], but their names are still [on the bid]. In a nutshell, Sun International’s Kersaf and Genbel are funding the bid 100%, but they are using the names of the deputy president’s wife, his legal adviser and government ministers to support their bid.”
Phalafala’s bid documents include a breakdown of the consortium’s membership. Although the “Women’s Development Business” section describes Women’s Development Bank Investment Holdings Limited as the investment division of Women’s Development Business, it lists 15 current directors including Njobe-Mbuli; Mbeki, and Gumbi, as well as tax guru Michael Katz, and Tager.
Holomisa said he intended to ask the Heath commission to investigate alleged conflicts of interest related to the bid after the ministry of public enterprises accused him of electioneering: “I view the response as symptomatic of a complete disregard for accountability.” He called for Mbeki to recuse himself from the Cabinet committee which will meet April 30 to ratify the bid selection of the Aventura bid evaluation committee.
The evaluation committee was expected to announce its preferred bidder this week, but public enterprises representative Wandile Zote said this would not be finalised until after the Cabinet committee’s meeting.
The Aventura bid selection is poised to become fraught by controversy, irrespective of which of the five consortiums emerges as the preferred bidder. The consortiums represent a witch’s brew of curiously competing interest groups, many of which are linked to the ruling party or South African-based multi- nationals with their fingers in more than one bid. The other bidders include:
l the Kopano Ke Matla Consortium, comprising the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s investment arm Kopano, the Danish People’s Holiday Landsorganisasie Denmark, Protea Hotels, Rennies Travel (linked to Kersaf) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation;
l New Adventure Investments, led by the Sanco Development Trust, but also including the Protea Hotel Group and the Southern Development Trust;
l The Boiketlong Investment Consortium, comprising Koti Investments, Nosanhlo Investment Holdings, the Embhuleni Tribal Authority and the Embhuleni Business Trust , both of which represent local community groups whose interests compete with those of some land claimants; and
l Shomang Investment Holdings including the South African Development Corporation, the United States-based Hampshire Hotels and Restaurants, Native American and Zone company, Hospitality Worldwide Services and the South African Casino Development Fund.