Justin Arenstein
The African National Congress used taxpayers’ money to fund at least one of its provincial congresses in Mpumalanga in 1996.
The party also appears to have actively courted the Mpumalanga Parks Board for cash donations totalling more than R105 000 and sponsorship of T-shirts, caps and satchels.
The allegations, which are being probed by the Heath special investigative unit, were confirmed by key ANC Youth League fund- raiser and provincial secretary James Nkambule on Thursday.
Speaking after his banning from the ANC provincial working committee and his forced resignation from the party, Nkambule admitted using some of the donations for personal legal and medical expenses.
The funding, he said, included sponsorship of at least two youth league conferences and cash donations totalling more than R105 000 since August last year.
Additional evidence indicates the Mpumalanga Parks Board and its suspended chief executive, Alan Gray, also helped fund the ANC’s 1996 congress in Secunda.
The cash donations to the youth league were channelled through a front company, Phambili Construction, set up by the parks board’s financial director, Nico Krugel.
The donations, Nkambule said, were made in return for a pledge of ANC Youth League support during tender applications.
Nkambule admits receiving additional payments from the parks board to cover his pregnant wife’s hospital costs, an expensive suit and various vehicle repairs.
He confirmed the board paid R40 000 to hire a “top-notch” criminal attorney for him last year, but insisted the funding was organised at the request of Premier Mathews Phosa and recently ousted finance MEC Jacques Modipane.
Phosa denied the charges, saying through a representative: “This is exactly what I expected from a person in as precarious a position as Nkambule. It’s all nonsense.”
He conceded, however, that he had helped raise funds for the ANC Youth League on a number of occasions, but denied intending that the money be spent on Nkambule’s personal expenses. – African Eye News Service