A document in which Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel allegedly asks a Swiss trustee of Jurgen Harksen’s affairs for money emerged at the Desai Commission on Wednesday.
The document, which has not been admitted as evidence, was presented by Harksen’s attorney Michael Luck during his cross-examination of Morkel’s personal executive assistant George van Dieman.
He was questioning Van Dieman on the rent of a Cape Town City Bowl apartment, which Harksen maintains he paid for on behalf of Morkel, a claim the mayor has denied.
Luck showed Van Dieman what he said were two faxes he had obtained on Tuesday from Harksen’s Swiss associate, notary Walter Studer.
The fax line at the top of the first document indicates it was sent from ”the mayoral suite” on January 31 this year.
Addressed to W Studer, it asks him to transfer an unspecified amount of money to Seeff Property Services at the Heerengracht branch of Absa Bank, and ends: ”Regards Gerald”.
The second document indicates that there was an error in the account number in the first document.
Luck said he had not presented the documents at the commission — which is due to end its public hearings on Friday — any earlier because Studer had been moving offices in Lucerne, Switzerland, and had only been able to locate them now.
Van Dieman said he had no knowledge of the faxes. He said he himself paid Seeff a sum of R55 655 for the six-month lease, and that Morkel repaid him with interest in July this year.
Harksen’s claim that he paid Morkel’s rent appeared earlier in the life of the commission to be supported by the police’s discovery of an invoice for the rent at the city centre boutique of Harksen’s wife Jeanette.
However Van Dieman said he dropped off the invoice there because Harksen had promised to negotiate a discount — a promise he never fulfilled.
Asked why he took it there himself, rather than faxing it, he said he had hoped to see Harksen, who he had not then met.
”He was a very important person. To meet Mr Harksen would be an honour, man. I wanted to shake his hand and say, ‘This is George’.”
However he had been disappointed, because Harksen was not there. – Sapa