The investigation into the Mpumalanga Parks Board’s dodgy deals is to be carried out in secret, reports Justin Arenstein from Nelspruit
Judge Willem Heath personally took control this week of investigations into a dodgy R340-million offshore loan deal set up by the Mpumalanga Parks Board, and promptly threw a blanket of secrecy over his special investigating unit’s operations.
Insisting that secrecy was essential to prevent massive losses to the state, Heath commandeered a room in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court and refused to say who he was interviewing or which allegations were being investigated.
The unit raided the parks board’s head office for a second time on Wednesday afternoon and seized additional documents that reportedly further incriminate the board’s chief executive, Alan Gray.
The raid follows reports that Gray drafted three promissory notes worth $50-million to a dubious South African-based brokerage, Fenetic Investments, in return for a one-year, R340-million loan to his cash-strapped parastatal.
Although Gray used at least three legal firms to draw up the promissory notes, which irrevocably and unconditionally bind the board’s assets to Fenetic as collateral, he neglected to get the necessary approvals for the “ground-breaking” deal.
Both the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, and his provincial counterpart, Jacques Modipane, have branded the deal illegal and pointed out that Gray was obliged to get Reserve Bank, state treasury, national loan co-ordinating committee and ministerial approval in terms of the Borrowing Powers of Provinces Act.
Modipane also accused Gray, during a series of heated exchanges this week, of fraudulently attaching his (Modipane’s) signature and official stamp to the promissory notes to imply government approval.
To date, Gray has failed to produce the original notes for forensic tests, but has been served an interdict preventing him from cashing the notes or issuing any more.
In December, Gray issued a fourth R500-million promissory note to an American precious metals investment company, Pacific Bullion International (PBI), but was forced to cancel the note in March.
PBI allegedly tried to use the promissory note to buy almost 12 tons of gold in London, but the deal fell through and PBI was unable to pay any of its scheduled monthly payments of R50-million to the parks board.
Gray denies that he issued any more promissory notes, but there are indications that at least one more was drafted to an American company.
The Fenetic deal isn’t Gray’s first attempt to cut corners and secretly approve massive “ground-breaking” deals using the region’s game parks as leverage.
The Mail & Guardian revealed how he tried to sign away exclusive commercial development rights to all of Mpumalanga’s core game parks and the Blyde River Canyon in a secret R12,5-billion deal three years ago. The 50-year deal, with the shady Dubai-based Dolphin Group, was frozen and re-negotiated after the expos.
Gray survived the scandal but was still trying to explain to the provincial legislature this week why he spent massive amounts of tax money on companies in which he had financial or other interests.
The dubious contracts, first reported in the M&G and verified by the auditor general, included air flips with Gray’s helicopter companies and medical insurance with his medical rescue company.
Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa said this week that Gray’s “litany of unhappy and highly embarrassing” deals gave him sleepless nights. Telling the press that he’d had enough, Phosa ordered the parks board’s directors to probe whether Gray was fit to run the parastatal and urged them to replace him as soon as possible. – African Eye News Service