Last week Robert Kirby presented the Mail & Guardian readership with an attack on Tony Leon’s integrity that was at once gruesome and florid, and altogether rather spectacular. But when one sets aside his searing metaphor, passion for hyperbole, surprising and often impressive tangles of description, it becomes clear that Kirby was really just talking fancy rubbish.
Kirby states that Tony Leon ignored and kept his distance “for weeks on end” from the investigations into allegations of fraud that were launched immediately after they were reported in the M&G on June 8. Here is the truth: following the publication of the M&G that Friday, Leon called an emergency meeting of the Democratic Alliance’s national management committee for 8am the following Monday, at which it was put to Cape Town’s mayor that he should institute an investigation into the allegations as they pertained to officer bearers and staff in the City of Cape Town. This he agreed to do. It was then also decided that the DA would institute another investigation into the allegations against DA office bearers and staff. This investigation would follow the conclusion of the first investigation so that it could make use of any information brought to light during the city’s investigation.
Kirby’s next complaint is that Leon failed to step in and stop “what was a patently obvious cover-up…” His belief that a cover-up was being attempted is based on the following: statements by city officials that the fraudulent petitions were an attempt by the African National Congress to frame the city; statements by the mayor that resistance to his proposal was motivated by racism; and the fact that Ben Kiesser was the person responsible for drawing up the terms of reference for the city’s investigation.
As problematic as were some of the statements to which Kirby refers, it is unclear how they equate to a cover-up. And until Victoria Johnson’s affidavit came to light, no one had ever accused Kiesser of misconduct.
The real problem with the city’s investigation was that its investigator did not have the power to subpoena witnesses whose testimony might prove material to the investigation.
This is why Leon requested the provincial minister of local government to institute a more powerful investigation in accordance with section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act once he had been handed Johnson’s detailed affidavit. This was done within 24 hours of him receiving it. The upshot is the Heath investigation, which began almost immediately.
Kirby finally claims that Belinda Walker took Johnson’s affidavit to Leon
in breach of strictest confidence, that Leon ignored Johnson’s “rights” and violated confidentiality by releasing the affidavit publicly, damaging Johnson’s reputation and compromising her safety.
Kirby has it all wrong. Walker took the affidavit to Leon with Johnson’s
knowledge and permission. Leon could not pretend he had not seen it or simply note its contents and do nothing. Rather, he asked the provincial government to launch a more powerful investigation.
He also decided to make the affidavit public given that it would soon be
public in any event (Johnson’s original intention was to hand the affidavit to the existing city investigator) and because the affidavit was the evidence required to set up a new section 106 investigation. Johnson indicated that while she could not give formal permission for the affidavit’s publication in order to protect herself legally, she would not object if the DA took it upon itself to do so. As for her safety, steps had already been taken by Cape Town’s city manager to ensure that she would not be subjected to a hostile environment at work.
Kirby invokes something once said about Harold Wilson to characterise Leon as two-faced. But what Wilson once said about Tony Benn applies perfectly to Kirby himself: he immatures with age. Ryan Coetzee, Office of the Leader, Democratic Alliance