Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel has been questioned by the investigative unit, the Scorpions, his representative Kylie Hatton confirmed on Tuesday.
She said the lengthy meeting, on Monday afternoon and evening, took place at Morkel’s request.
The Scorpions are probing possible money laundering, exchange control contraventions, and corruption in the Western Cape.
Hatton said Morkel had asked about three weeks ago for an opportunity to talk to the Scorpions because there had been a number of ”rumours and allegations” in the media that they were investigating him.
”He felt there were some issues they didn’t resolve yesterday, but he felt very positive about the meeting,” she said. ”All the questions that were raised, he was able to answer quite comfortably.”
Asked whether Morkel was in fact being investigated, she said: ”I don’t think you can gauge from the meeting they had last night… I don’t think there’s a serious investigation at this stage.”
The Scorpions were not immediately available for comment.
German fraud suspect Jurgen Harksen has told the Desai Commission that he gave more than R1-million to Morkel and the Democratic Alliance (DA), which Morkel leads in the Western Cape.
An Absa banker and a DA official also testified on how they processed a sum of 99000 Deutschmarks on Morkel’s instructions. – Sapa