Allegations that Hernus Kriel influenced casino licensing have surfaced. Chiara Carter and Ivor Powell report
A man who served on the Western Cape Gaming Board has accused former premier Hernus Kriel of exerting undue influence on decisions to license casinos and urging a cover-up of an alleged bribe by a business friend.
The allegations are contained in a statement which has been kept under wraps by the Office for Serious Economic Offences (Oseo) since last year – but was leaked to the Mail & Guardian this week.
It was the springboard for an Oseo investigation which was sparked by African National Congress claims that Kriel took bribes – and which last month saw investigators search Kriel’s homes. They also searched for documents from Gambling and Racing Board chair Derrick Auret and businessman Ian Hirschon.
The statement was made by Cape Town architect Gerrie Steenkamp – a gambling board member who resigned from the body last year and who is also being investigated. He alleges in a statement that Kriel and other key New National Party members including MEC for Environment, Culture, Sport and Recreation Kobus Meiring promoted his candidature for the board.
After Steenkamp expressed growing disenchantment with the model for regulating gaming in the Cape, Kriel allegedly berated him for daring to question decisions taken by the provincial government.
Steenkamp claims an angry Kriel urged him to “remember he had been put in this position by the National Party and must act in accordance with the decisions of the National Party”.
Steenkamp replied that, in his understanding, the board was independent and its members bound to take decisions on the basis of merit. He was then allegedly told that Kriel was eager that the bid for a casino in Goodwood should succeed, since Kriel wanted to do something to benefit his old parliamentary constituency.
Steenkamp also claims he was offered bribes by Kriel’s friend – a businessman linked to the bid by SunWest International to run the proposed Goodwood casino. Steenkamp alleges the businessman twice offered him payment saying the money had already been secured abroad.
He quotes the businessman as saying “[Steenkamp’s] money was safe overseas”. On another occasion, Steenkamp claims the businessman referred to money waiting for him in Greece.
Steenkamp understood this to be a sweetener to induce him to support the Goodwood bid – although he had developed serious reservations about it. SunWest used the businessman to secure a site for the proposed casino.
After signing a sales contract, the company paid the businessman and two partners money upfront and the remainder was to be paid later, on condition they did not jeopardise the bid. Steenkamp claims that long before he joined the board, Kriel introduced him to the businessman.
After Steenkamp joined the board, the businessman allegedly tried to discuss the casino bids on several occasions. The situation reached the point where Steenkamp asked Kriel to intervene and tell the businessman to desist.
Steenkamp also asked Kriel about an insinuation by Auret that the former premier had received kickbacks from bidders. Kriel put Steenkamp’s mind at ease, assuring him that this was not the case. Steenkamp claims the businessman later made another approach, visiting his office under false pretences. At this encounter the businessman indicated that he had inside information on the board’s discussions.
Steenkamp says they then went out on the terrace where the businessman allegedly told him he had no cause for concern because his “money was very safe in Greece”.
He reported this conversation to two board members. Steenkamp says that shortly after the ANC went public with its accusations against Kriel, the former premier contacted him. Steenkamp alleges Kriel asked him not to mention the businessman attempted bribes.
“In this discussion Mr Kriel asked me if I was ever offered money to favour a scheme. My answer was yes, [the businessman] did this. Mr Kriel asked me to please forget this whereupon I responded that I would rather this happened. However if I were asked to give evidence, I would have no other option but to make it public. Mr Kriel again said to me that he was totally innocent in the whole affair but that such a revelation would revelation would not be to his advantage,” Steenkamp says.
He also claims that in August last year another senior NNP politician, Lampie Fick, invited him to lunch. Steenkamp was astonished to be joined at Fick’s office by one of the bidders for a casino licence in Caledon, an area where Fick has business interests.
After Steenkamp told Fick that he believed the Cape metropole should have more than the one casino favoured by the provincial government, Kriel allegedly called Steenkamp to order for going against the decisions of the NNP.
Steenkamp’s report paints a picture of intrigue and mismanagement in the board, which fell apart after the resignations of almost all its members last year.
He alleges the board was told by Auret that the real reason for the abrupt departure last year of a key board member (Cape Technikon vice- rector Mandla Tshabalala) was that Kriel and Auret had information about this man’s interests in one of the groups involved in the Sun bid.
Steenkamp places much of the blame for board members’ unhappiness at the door of Auret, a full-time chairperson whom Steenkamp accuses of being an autocrat and whose appointment was prearranged.
Steenkamp says that he, like several experts, was not happy with the Goodwood site. As he gained more experience on the board, he became increasingly concerned that the province was opting for a single casino in the metropole rather than several as suggested by some consultants and international experts.
Steenkamp’s own view was that the Cape Metropole could sustain at least three casinos. He says it was never satisfactorily explained to him why other options than that of a single casino were never discussed at board meetings.
Steenkamp had links to the Sun bid. His firm of architects made an unsuccessful attempt to be appointed to the Sun casino project.
Kriel declined to comment, saying he was out of politics. Steenkamp declined to comment, referring questions to the Oseo. Its investigator, Jannie van Vuuren, confirmed the Oseo had the statement, but said it was confidential.