PHILLIP NKOSI and JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday
THE much-delayed disciplinary hearing into Mpumalanga’s suspended parks board chief, Alan Gray, wrapped up testimony this week after four days of legal argument.
Gray, who was suspended on 20 internal misconduct and alleged fraud charges in September 1998, will however only learn his fate on November 23 when independent adjudicator Advocate Kobus Lowies lodges his verdict.
Gray’s attorney, Pieter Swanepoel, said the hearing was dogged by repeated administrative blunders that saw the charges redrafted and the Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) terminate Lowies’ mandate halfway through the hearing.
The hearings have been mired in controversy since Gray was suspended. The MPB initially failed to lodge formal charges and was then forced to redraft them twice to ensure they did not prejudice police fraud investigations into Gray’s activities.
MPB spokesman Gary Sutter was unable to explain why the parastatal tried to cover the blunders up by insisting last week that the delays were due to the unavailability of “key witnesses”. He was also unable to say why the MPB misinformed the media about the hearings earlier this month, when the parastatal said all testimony had been postponed until November 1.
Witnesses in fact continued to testify for a full four days before the hearing was postponed.
Many of the disciplinary charges are based on Gray’s 32-page written confession to former Premier Mathews Phosa that he used MPB resources to set up and operate a shady business network designed to fund the African National Congress (ANC) and a number of handpicked provincial politicians.
Gray claims in his statement that the network of front companies and trust funds used tax funds as “seed capital” and that many of the ventures were built on government tenders.
The confession also forms part of the 77 criminal theft and fraud charges brought against Gray for the alleged embezzlement of more than R2m of taxpayer funds. Gray will appear in the Nelspruit Regional Court to answer the criminal charges on November 28 along with sacked ANC Youth League provincial secretary James Nkambule, provincial Youth League organiser Alfred Thumbathi and sacked MPB accountant Maxi Green. – African Eye News Service