Paul Kirk
Judge Willem Heath has criticised the appointment of a commission of inquiry by the KwaZulu-Natal government to investigate charges against the province’s MEC for Welfare and Population Development, Prince Gideon Zulu.
The appointment of the commission followed several exposs in the Mail & Guardian about alleged corruption in Zulu’s department that appeared to benefit both Zulu and his daughter.
The M&G reported, among other things, on bank documents showing how Zulu awarded contracts to a company that apparently paid him large amounts of money via his daughter’s bank account.
Zulu has repeatedly refused to discuss any of the allegations with the M&G on the grounds that the newspaper is racist.
Heath says the commission of inquiry, which was set up last month, would be “toothless” and a “waste of time and money”. The judge says he discussed the matter with MEC for Finance Peter Miller when the scandal first broke, and that it had initially been agreed that his unit would investigate Zulu. Members of Heath’s unit said they were “very, very surprised by the [KwaZulu-Natal government’s] decision to appoint a commission of inquiry rather than call on our services”, while Heath says he will try to discuss the matter further with Miller.
Miller was not available for comment, and junior officials in his department all claimed they were afraid to talk to the M&G. Miller is known to have favoured having Heath investigate the affairs of Zulu, the decision to appoint a commission of inquiry having been taken unilaterally by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali.
The commission of inquiry is to be headed by Jan Venter, a well-known Durban advocate who appeared for a number of apartheid-era policemen during their appearances before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Said Heath: “It would save the province a great deal of money if this unit were to investigate matters. We have the power to set aside contracts as well as to recover monies. A commission of inquiry will not have these powers and will be an expensive thing to run.”
The bill for the commission will be footed by the province, whereas an investigation by the Heath Unit would cost the province nothing.
Zulu has served papers on the M&G suing the paper for R500E000 in a defamation action. Among other things, Zulu has taken umbrage at how the M&G obtained his banking records showing he was receiving money from companies that his own department had awarded contracts to in controversial circumstances.
It is the awarding of this contract, to Cash Paymaster Services, that Heath specifically wants to investigate. He alone would have the power to set the contract aside.
Highly placed sources within the Inkatha Freedom Party told the M&G that Zulu was becoming increasingly irrational of late.
The Hansard reading for the last paragraph of his most recent attack on the M&G – made three weeks ago – is almost incomprehensible: “I will not forget, one day when an Irishman there said, “Take these children away from here. They are degrading our place. I have got a gun. I will shoot.” This was said by a colonist. They came here to colonise our country. He thinks he can now colonise our country. Thank you.”
n Meanwhile, Heath has confirmed he was asked to probe the relationship between the IFP and illegal casinos more than a year ago. Heath said he received a request to investigate the illegal casino issue in KwaZulu-Natal from Wessel Nel, the provincial leader of the Democratic Party in the province, but he has not launched an investigation. Heath did not comment on a recent report in the M&G that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has been probing allegations that IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has been pocketing pay-offs from illegal casinos.
At the time, the DP supplied the Heath unit with an affidavit from the Gambling Association of South Africa in which the association, a grouping of unlicensed casinos, admitted to giving a R100E000 donation to the IFP. This flies in the face of a denial by the IFP’s Ben Ngubane this week that his party had ever received money from illegal casinos. In a letter to the M&G this week, Ngubane sought to rubbish the M&G report about Buthelezi, suggesting the very large amounts of cash in Buthelezi’s account – the NIA says there is about R4-million – came from cattle farming.
A well-placed source close to Buthelezi said it is unlikely that the money came from cattle farming, pointing out that Buthelezi deposited R1-million in cash from a stash of R2-million in exchange for a bank-guaranteed cheque. This was then deposited into the IFP’s accounts and the transaction effectively hid the fact that the money was held in cash.
The high-ranking IFP source said: “Had the money been raised by cattle farming it would have gone into Buthelezi’s own accounts. Not into the IFP accounts. The IFP is not involved in cattle farming. That cash was money given to the IFP by someone who could not write us out a cheque.”
Letters, PAGE 26