Peter Dickson
More details have emerged about the colourful career and current activities of Bonile Jack, the man at the centre of the Land Bank saga, including a fund-raising scheme he is involved in with an Eastern Cape monarch.
Jack is among several businesspeople setting up a trust fund for Maxhoba Sandile – king of the AmaRharhabe kingdom in the former Ciskei – that will, among other things, pay for the upgrading of the king’s new palace.
The former acting chair of the Land Bank has been in the limelight after writing a report to President Thabo Mbeki accusing the managing director of the institution, Helena Dolny, of racism, nepotism and corruption.
The report, details of which were published in The Star two weeks ago, has triggered an investigation into Dolny by a top Johannesburg law firm.
Jack was director general of agriculture and rural development under the despotic ruler of the Ciskei homeland, Lennox Sebe, in the 1980s. Sebe backed Sandile, providing him with magnificent offices in the showcase Ciskei capital of Bisho.
After a democratic government was elected in 1994, Sandile created a small political crisis when he refused to pay rent for his lavish quarters.
The king was finally persuaded to pay up, following an uproar among members of the Eastern Cape legislature.
Last week Jack made a pitch for Sandile’s new fund-raising scheme at a gathering of businesspeople and financiers in East London. Jack said the initiative reflected a desire “to get people to rally to relieve the plight of his subjects”, and would be funded by private sector grants and donations.
“The king, through the trust, would contribute to the social needs of his people,” Jack said. “These include crime prevention, community centres, clinics, schools and access roads.”
Jack said income earned by the trust would be used to upgrade the royal palaces of Sandile and chiefs falling under his jurisdiction, and to build offices for chiefs and traditional leaders. He added that community clinics, crches, schools, access roads, market stalls and dips would also be built.
Jack said the Sandile trust idea has the support of former president Nelson Mandela.
Jack became principal of Fort Cox Agricultural College at the age of 29. During his stint in academia he was detained and charged with fraud in the Zwelitsha Magistrate’s Court, in February 1985. No evidence was led.
A few months later Jack was appointed deputy director general of agriculture. By 1987 he was director general, holding the post until June 1990, shortly after the coup that brought Brigadier Oupa Gqozo to power. Jack was one of several confidants of Sebe imprisoned by Gqozo.
On June 16 1990, fraud charges against Jack and four other senior Ciskei agriculture department officers, who had been out on R100 bail, were withdrawn – again in the Zwelitsha Magistrate’s Court, and again with no evidence having been led.
In 1996 Jack became head of the Land Bank, but failed to become its managing director when the post fell vacant in 1997.
Last week the Mail & Guardian disclosed that Dolny had turned down a loan application from a private company of which Jack is deputy chair.
l The M&G reported last week that Jack had close ties to the Gqozo regime. The report should instead have referred to the Sebe regime.