/ 11 February 2000

Prince Gideon feathers his nest

Paul Kirk

A senior member of the Zulu royal family and KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Welfare, Prince Gideon Zulu, is receiving regular payments by way of his daughter from the security company that delivers the province’s state pensions.

Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) has held the multimillion-rand contract for about five years. It is responsible for delivering and guarding pension pay-outs across the province.

The Mail & Guardian is in possession of bank documents showing regular CPS deposits into the account of a company registered in the name of Zulu’s daughter. Bank records show that within days of being deposited, the same amounts are transferred to an account held by Zulu himself.

CPS has been paying amounts of between R5E000 and R16E000 into the bank account of Zuzulwazi Support Services, a company in the name of Zulu’s eldest daughter, Dr Gcwalisile Kabanyane. On one day alone – January 14 this year – R32E000 passed through the company’s accounts, in two instalments of R16E000.

On banking documents the company is registered as a close corporation, but it is not to be found at the Registrar of Companies. The address given for the company on bank documents is “care of: Prince Gideon Zulu”.

Zulu’s extra-curricular income is not confined to these payments, as he is also the owner of the Ondini service station. The small garage in rural KwaZulu-Natal sells large amounts of petrol to government departments and also services government cars. A search of the records held by the Registrar of Companies shows Zulu is the sole owner – an apparent conflict of interest considering the garage’s trade with the government.

Unlike national politicians, KwaZulu- Natal’s legislators do not have to declare their business interests. The KwaZulu-Natal legislature does not keep any record of gifts and donations its members receive, nor does it keep a record of their business interests.

Asked to comment on the story, Zulu declined to make any statement. Through his representative, Mike Gumede, he referred the M&G to his daughter, Kabanyane.

Approached for comment, Kabanyane asked: “I would like to know how you accessed my account. Is that legal?” She claimed nothing was irregular and explained that payments from CPS into her account were for a study she conducted into pensions. “CPS is not just a security company. They do a lot of voluntary work with the community. They asked me to do a study on how pensioners, their clients, were being ripped off by loan sharks.”

She said she asked CPS to pay for the study up front as her business was very new and had a cash-flow problem. Said Kabanyane: “They agreed to this, and as soon as the money was in my account, I gave it to my father. You see for some time I was unemployed and I owe him money.”

Guy Rich, of the Heath special investigating unit, expressed concern over the details of Zulu’s bank account. But he said it might be difficult to secure a proclamation for investigation. “Before we can investigate this matter we have to refer the matter to the Department of Justice,” Rich said. “They will then refer the matter to the premier of the province concerned as well as the MEC whose department the corruption is in. Only once they have given their consent can a matter be referred back to us for investigation.”

The problem for the Heath unit is that those rules mean Zulu could have a role in deciding whether the probe into his own affairs should get the go-ahead. While Rich said steps can be taken to go directly to the premier alone, investigators in the unit pointed out that MECs are often protected by premiers who are anxious to avoid embarrassment for their party.

Said one senior investigator, who asked not to be named: “The system is inherently flawed. The crooked MECs always get to know about what is happening and then conduct cover-ups before we can start. What you are telling me is a perfect example of the flaw. I doubt if anything will come out of it at all. In an ideal world we should not need anyone’s consent to investigate.”

Rich told the M&G that between 80 and 90 investigations had been waiting since last year to be proclaimed. He could not cite a reason for the delays.

However, he did say his unit would soon be compiling a list of which investigations are awaiting proclamation so as to be able to track the cases.

CPS officials denied knowledge of the payments, and declined to comment further on the matter.