Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu remained tight-lipped about top-secret corruption investigations into his predecessor Mathews Phosa this week as the province’s latest financial scandal erupted. The new R120-million investment scandal was masterminded during Phosa’s reign but does not appear to be directly linked to the politician, who entered private business after being ousted from active politics last year. In an apparent attempt to pre-empt the Mail & Guardian’s three-month investigation into a dodgy R120-million government investment, Mahlangu issued a general press statement on Thursday confirming that provincial Auditor General Douglas Maphiri had this week been requested to probe the apparent fraud. Mahlangu’s special consultant, Sefako Nyaka, said in the statement that Maphiri would launch a forensic probe into a “suspicious” 4% structuring fee on the investment that created a R4,8-million windfall for the brokers involved.
The one-off structuring fee was, he said, “highly suspicious and was not deemed normal business practice”. What neither Mahlangu nor Nyaka would comment on, however, are indications that the Heath special investigative unit warned the government about the apparent scam six months ago, in February. Nyaka also refused to comment on “sensitive” forensic investigations into Phosa, former finance MEC Jacques Modipane, former environmental affairs MEC David Mkhwanazi and a number of prominent provincial business persons. The investigations by Gobodo Inc are believed to implicate Phosa and his former colleagues in a number of the province’s largest scandals, including the R1,3-billion promissory note deal two years ago. “We are not prepared to jeopardise the investigations by going public on what we have discovered so far,” said Nyaka. He did admit, however, that the Heath unit warned Mahlangu about irregularities in the R120-million deal in February. Leaked copies of the unit’s detailed report to Mahlangu add that financial brokers at Rand Merchant Bank’s (RNB) asset management division tried to raise the alarm as far back as 1997 and again in 1998. Their warnings that the government’s decision to prematurely terminate an earlier R100-million unit trust investment would result in a R4,8-million penalty fee were ignored. RMB felt so strongly that fraud or other irregularities were involved, internal bank correspondence shows, that RMB reduced the penalty to R3,1-million and immediately warned the then national provincial affairs and constitutional development ministry that something was wrong. RMB warned the ministry that Mpumalanga finance superintendent general Leon Botha was unable to explain his decision to terminate the investment, brushed aside warnings that any premature cancellation would incur unnecessary costs for the taxpayer and immediately ended his telephone conservation when he realised he was being recorded. Botha insisted in the July 1997 conversation, a transcript of which is in the M&G’s possession, that he needed the money back immediately to “clean our books” and would possibly reinvest it a couple of months later. He turned down RMB’s offer to issue a valuation certificate for auditing purposes.
Botha later served prominently on a finance committee that reinvested the original R100-million and an additional R20-million with a consortium lead by the Board of Executors, Coronation Management and an unknown brokerage, Profas (Pty) Ltd. The new R120-million investment contract, offering almost identical benefits to the RMB deal, included the “suspicious” 4% one-off structuring fee in addition to the normal 0,5% annual management fee. Finance Services Board financial markets head Gerry Anderson said on Thursday the allegations were serious and warned the board would review the registration of all three companies should investigators prove fraud. Botha insisted on Thursday that he acted legally and in the state’s best interests at all times and dismissed speculation that anyone benefited financially from the deal. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel will meet Mahlangu in Nelspruit on Friday and is expected to discuss the R120-million probe, as well as the province’s continuing financial management problems.