OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nelspruit | Tuesday 9.15pm.
MPUMALANGA’s provincial finance MEC Jacques Modipane on Tuesday said that it is highly probable that Mpumalanga’s Parks Board chief Alan Gray forged his signature on the back of three illegal promissory notes.
The notes offer some of South Africa’s prize national parks up as collateral for an illegal R340-million offshore loan deal for the MPB.
Producing the MPB’s 1996 annual report, Modipane said Alan Gray had that year electronically scanned and reproduced board chairman Patrick Maduna’s signature without permission or consultation.
“If Gray can [forge signatures] once, there is nothing to prevent him from doing it again. I never signed any of the promissory notes issued by Gray and therefore believe that my signature must have been forged by someone in the parks board,” Modipane said.
Modipane could not explain, however, how a scanned computer print-out could pass for a original signature. He said the promissory notes Gray issued to Fenetic Investments will be sent for forensic tests when they were returned to South Africa from the United States.