Despite owning property in the Western Cape worth at least a million rand, Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel is hanging onto a donation for his rent that he no longer needs.
This emerged at the Desai Commission on Friday, where an increasingly irascible Morkel complained to an acquaintance during a break that his questioners were making ”a big thing of buggerall”.
Under cross-examination by the commission’s leader of evidence Craig Webster, he confirmed that he owns two bond-free properties on a golf estate in Strand, and others in Constantia and Silvertree Estate in Westlake.
He has already testified that when he was shunted out of the Western Cape premier’s official residence Leeuwenhof late last year, he rented an apartment in the Cape Town city bowl.
To pay the rent, he borrowed about R68 000 from his private secretary and friend George van Dieman, and paid it back with interest on July 10.
But he discovered at the end of July that a wealthy Swiss boxing promoter who spends summers in Cape Town, Wilfried Sauerland, had in April or March put R49 825 towards the rent into an account controlled by Van Dieman.
Morkel said that although they had discussed his situation at the time he moved out of Leeuwenhof, Sauerland had not told him he intended giving him the money.
”Your financial situation didn’t exactly reflect need,” said Judge Siraj Desai.
”Mr Sauerland as a friend offered to help me, and he did it and that’s it,” said Morkel.
Desai asked whether as first citizen of Cape Town and a ”substantial” property owner, he thought it proper to accept a donation for rent from a foreigner.
”I think I can accept donations from friends,” replied Morkel. ”Everybody else does accept donations… I saw nothing wrong with it.”
Asked if the money had now been transferred from Van Dieman’s account to his own, Morkel said: ”I said he must keep it there until I want it. It’s there now and I don’t need it just yet, and when I need it I will take it.”
Former Western Cape premier Gerald Morkel has told the Desai Commission that the African National Congress was trying last year to destabilise the provincial government.
Cross-examined on his administration’s purchase of the controversial Watchdog electronic device and the creation of a secure ”bunker” in the administration building, he said they had been ”unusual times”.
He said he attended only one meeting in the bunker, in the second half of last year, with former provincial director general Dr Niel Barnard and community safety MEC Hennie Bester.
Asked what was discussed, he said: ”Politics… the gerrymandering that was taking place between different political parties and the ANC’s role to destabilise the government of the Western Cape.”
He said the meeting took place in the bunker because it was ”soundproof” and the Watchdog would ensure that no-one was able to bug the conversation electronically.
He acknowledged that political discussions would normally take place in a conference room or boardroom.
”It wasn’t normal times in the sense many of the conversations I thought I had with members of my party and others, almost verbatim it appeared in the press,” he said.
He said that because of the ”political connotation”, he was not prepared to say which newspaper articles had disturbed him.
Asked by Desai whether he did not consider the possibility of a leak in his own party’s ranks before implementing such elaborate security measures, he said: ”Some of the stuff you suspect there might be leaks, but there are matters like this that you suspect there might be bugs.”
Asked why the province had brought in a private firm to check for bugs rather than using the National Intelligence Agency, he said he had ”reservations” about the agency.
”It was my impression that they had their ears and eyes all over the show including this (provincial) building,” he said.
At the time Morkel headed a DA provincial government, with the ANC in opposition. Morkel returns to the stand on Monday, which Desai promised would be his last day of questioning. He began his evidence-in-chief on Wednesday. ? Sapa