The Heath unit will launch an investigation into the affairs of Prince Gideon Zulu after receiving the approval of the premier of KwaZulu-Natal
Paul Kirk
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali has signed a proclamation allowing the Heath special investigating unit to probe the affairs of his Minister of Welfare and Population Development, Prince Gideon Zulu.
The proclamation follows a series of articles written by the Mail & Guardian detailing possible nepotism and impropriety in the prince’s department.
Sources within the legislature said Mtshali had shown considerable courage and dedication to clean governance by signing the proclamation. Mtshali has already set up his own commission to probe Zulu, but unlike the Heath unit this commission has no powers and can only make a finding on whether corruption and nepotism were involved in the contracts. Judge Willem Heath’s unit has criticised the commission as being toothless, saying it was a ”waste of time and money” because of its lack of powers.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for the Heath special investigating unit has been the fact that the unit can launch an investigation with only the approval of the relevant provincial premier. In other provinces this has allowed premiers to delay investigation of their political or business associates. In the Free State the Heath unit had to wait for more than a year for a proclamation to investigate corruption in that province.
The draft proclamation, prepared by the Department of Justice, has also been signed by KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Finance Peter Miller. It will be the first new proclamation granted to the unit for nearly a year.
The M&G exposed in its February 11 to 17 issue how the prince was receiving payments through his daughter from a company that had won the R400-million contract to pay pensions in KwaZulu- Natal. It emerged this week that the company, Cash Paymaster Services, also has strong links to the Inkatha Freedom Party – the party of which Zulu has been an ardent supporter for many years. Cash Paymaster Services in Johannesburg owns 70% of Cash Paymaster Services KwaZulu- Natal, the company that won the provincial welfare contract. The other 30% is partly owned by Khulani Holdings, a company with close links to the IFP.
Zulu’s daughter maintains that the money paid to her by Cash Paymaster Services was payment for a micro-lending study she is conducting in KwaZulu-Natal. How-ever, payment for her study came from the Johannesburg head office of the company.
In another revelation, the M&G reported that Zulu’s daughter was a consultant for a company, Cornerstone, that was selling dodgy funeral policies to old-age pensioners through her father’s department.
The signing into effect of the proclamation comes in the week that Zulu hired top Durban advocate Kemp J Kemp to grill an M&G reporter on the series of stories which ultimately led to the premier setting up a commission of enquiry into Zulu, headed by advocate Jan Venter.
Zulu hired Kemp after Venter recommended he obtain legal counsel when the M&G handed in bank accounts proving some of the allegations made in the story.
At the time these were handed in, a visibly surprised Venter indicated he was not expecting the documents and would still have to make a finding on whether they were admissible. He also admitted to not having read any of the M&G articles on Zulu.
This week Venter entered the bank records as evidence without making a finding on their admissibility. The effect of this is to allow the as yet unauthenticated documents – which only record a month’s transactions – to serve as a basis for Kemp’s cross-examination and his enquiries. The commission has not used its power to subpoena Zulu’s bank records.
Zulu, the subject of the commission’s enquiry, has yet to attend it and has instead dispatched his representative, Mike Gumede, to listen to the M&G’s testimony. Kemp demanded to know the source of the M&G articles as well as the newspaper’s notes.