An independent audit commissioned by the Democratic Alliance (DA) has been unable to establish the source of an anonymous donation of 99 000 Deutschemarks to the party in the Western Cape, while the source of three amounts in the DA’s national accounts is also unclear.
The audit, by Ernst and Young, was commissioned on May 30 after numerous allegations that the DA and Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel had received donations from German fraud suspect Jurgen Harksen.
Its findings were made public on Wednesday. The auditors also said the source of three amounts totalling R106 000 in the DA’s national head office accounts were also unclear.
This included a deposit of R21 000 on September 21, 2000, a further R50 000 on November 20, 2000, and R35 000 three days later.
The amounts appear to have been deposited by the NNP, which at the time was still part of the DA.
The amounts described in the cashbook are referred to as ”NNP-MP’s and LS’s Levies” and ”NNP-Black Tie Dinners”.
The auditors said that although no supporting documents for the transactions totalling R106 000 were available, ”they are all reasonably well described in the cashbooks”.
”The cashbook indicates that these deposits were transferred from the NNP… We have however not reviewed the books and records of the NNP.”
DA Federal Council chairman James Selfe said that fundraising targets had been set and the money came from NNP deposits into the accounts.
”The bank has no record of the deposit slips and the NNP appears not to have it either,” he said explaining why the source of the money was still unclear.
Selfe said the auditors had found no evidence that either the DA, Morkel or its chief fund-raiser in the Western Cape, Leon Markovitz, received any money from Harksen.
”On the contrary, the forensic audit shows beyond doubt that Jurgen Harksen has lied repeatedly to the Desai Commission,” he said.
Although the auditors were unable to establish the source of the anonymous donation of 99 000 Deutschemarks, there was no reason to believe that Harksen’s claim that he was the source of the donation was true.
”We were able to prove that he was a complete liar on 99% of the allegations. So why should this one be believed,” said Selfe.
While he was concerned that the donor could not be established, ”from everything we can see, it did not come from Harksen, but from someone that is still unknown”. – Sapa