Shaw contract
Mungo Soggot
The Serious Economic Offences branch of the national prosecuting authority is to interview directors of the Central Energy Fund (CEF) about the award of a R3-million contract to a company run by Liberian politician Emanuel Shaw II.
The head of the Investigating Directorate (Serious Economic Offences), Jan Swanepoel, confirmed his office would be questioning CEF directors on the background of the award of the contract, which was awarded by former CEF chair Don Mkhwanazi.
Mkhwanazi, who quit after it emerged he had financial ties with the Liberian, could face criminal charges for awarding the contract to Shaw’s company – International Advisory Services – without disclosing to his fellow CEF directors the full extent of his business ties with Shaw.
The Mail & Guardian reported last year on the two-way flow of money between Shaw and Mkhwanazi’s accounts. The two also had joint signing powers on a company account, fed with money from Shaw’s private account, which paid the bond on Mkhwanazi’s R2,4-million Johannesburg house.
Shaw has returned to Liberia where he is financial adviser to President Charles Taylor.
Swanepoel confirmed his investigators had perused several of Shaw and Mkhwanazi’s accounts, but declined to comment further. His office was working with the Office of the Public Protector, Swanepoel said.
The cash-strapped public protector has been overwhelmed with investigations and allegations linked to the state oil company. It spent much of last year probing allegations of impropriety made by Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuell Maduna against the Office of the Auditor General and the state’s oil trading company.
The inquiry was recently postponed until July 4, which means Maduna will not have to testify before the elections.
Meanwhile, the acting general manager of the state oil company, Brian Casey, has confirmed his resignation from the company. His is the latest in a string of departures of top personnel from the CEF.
Casey testified to Public Protector Selby Baqwa’s probe last year about Maduna and Shaw’s joint efforts to oust the former head of the state oil trading company, Kobus van Zyl. Maduna made his allegations about the auditor general in Parliament in June 1997 while answering questions about Van Zyl’s controversial suspension in March 1997. Van Zyl was finally dismissed late last year.