ALAN FINLAY, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.30pm.
THE Heath Special Investigative Unit has defended the manner in which it has served notices on four former Independent Broadcasting Authority councillors, who allegedly owe the regulatory body more than R236000.
Sibeletso Mokone-Matabane has been asked to repay R54903, Peter de Klerk R46418, Linda Shope-Mafole R123357 and William Lane R9870.
IBA acting-ceo, Ken Herold, said R6112 of the money owed by Lane has already been repaid. He said documentation proving that the remaining amount was for business use has also been provided.
Although the unit’s head, Judge Willem Heath could not confirm this on Thursday evening, he said he would be ”grateful” if it’s true, because the unit will not have to take further action.
The unit has given the four 21 days to say whether they intend defending the action against them. If they don’t repay the money they will be required to appear before a special tribunal.
The summonses follow a 1997 probe by the auditor general whose report to parliament found that several IBA councillors had used their IBA credit cards for personal use, including tickets to a Pavarotti concert, upgrading airline tickets to first class and unnecessary stays in five star hotels.
Mokone-Matabane, who works for Sentech, the state owned signal distributor, said she ‘maintains her innocence’. She would not say if this meant she feels she doesn’t owe the money. She said she will seek legal advise before commenting further.
De Klerk has refused to comment on the summons. He says the matter is sub judice and that it will take him a couple of weeks to study the papers.
Linda Shope-Mafole, who holds a senior position at the South African embassy in France, is out of Paris at the moment, and unavailable for comment.
In his reaction Lane has sharply criticised the unit. He insists the unit hadn’t taken congnissance of substantial repayments he had already made to the IBA. He also said it’s unacceptable that the unit should make anouncements to the press which are ”highly damaging without having taken notice of representations that have been made.” He added that the unit had not contacted him about its investigation, while he has been waiting for ”two years to speak to someone with the proper authority to sort it out.”
However Heath said there’s no reason to doubt the figures his unit received from auditing firm Deloitte & Touche. He insists the summonses were not supposed to become public knowledge until the four had received them. ”It’s out of our hands”, Heath said, adding that there has been nothing improper about the procedure. He said repayments could happen ”any day”.