Battered by claims that it received funds from alleged German fraudster Jurgen Harksen, the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Thursday appointed independent auditors Ernst and Young to conduct a forensic audit of donations to the party in the Western Cape and at national level.
This is one of five steps the DA hopes will help bring closure to weeks of embarrassing and damaging allegations that has put the party’s credibility on the line and given ammunition to its political foes.
DA federal council chairman James Selfe told reporters the party’s chief whip Douglas Gibson also planned to introduce a private member’s bill in Parliament to regulate foreign donations or those made in foreign currency.
On the forensic audit of his party’s books both nationally and in the Western Cape, Selfe said the personal accounts of DA provincial leader Gerald Morkel and the party’s chief fundraiser Leon Markovitz would also be audited.
DA officials said three sets of books existed at the time, those of the DA and its component structures, the DP and the NNP.
”The DA and DP will open its books. I’m sure the NNP will not have a problem making its books available,” DA representative Nick Clelland-Stokes said.
NNP representative Darryl Swanepoel said his party had stuck to its agreement with the DP when it formed the DA in July 2002 that all future donations would be deposited in the DA’s account.
Selfe pledged that if it was established by the auditors that the DA had received any money from Harksen, the party would repay the full amount to the liquidators of Harksen’s estate.
On the DA’s internal commission led by Theuns Botha, he said Morkel and Markovitz would be asked to appear before it again so that the latest allegations could be put to them.
The internal commission’s terms of reference had also been extended to include the role played by Eric Marais, an Absa official, married to a DA local councillor.
Marais told the provincial government-appointed Desai Commission on Wednesday that, on Morkel’s instructions, he had laundered an amount of 90 000 Deutschmarks that had been given to the DA by an unnamed donor.
The Desai Commission has been told by Harksen that he donated more than a million rand to the DA, much of it given to Morkel — a claim the DA has denied.
Marais said he was contacted by Morkel, then Western Cape premier, in July or August 2001 to ask if he would help process a donation to the party.
Selfe said the party’s internal commission had been asked to report back no later than June 5.
On newspaper reports that the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions was investigating charges of money laundering, he said both Morkel and Markovitz had written to the Scorpions indicating their willingness to co-operate.
Selfe said it was disturbing that the Scorpions had not yet seen fit to make contact with either man despite the on-going innuendo in the media that these individuals were under investigation for serious offences.
”We would like, yet again, to place on record that if any member of the DA has been corrupt, or has committed any criminal acts, he or she must be prosecuted, over and above any disciplinary steps that would flow from the party’s side.” – Sapa