The Desai commission’s report, which finds the Democratic Alliance (DA) did accept tainted money, is to be referred to the Scorpions for further investigation.
This was announced on Tuesday by Western Cape premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
He was speaking at a briefing where his party’s coalition partner, the African National Congress (ANC), called on Morkel to quit, saying he had given Western Cape politics a dirty name.
Van Schalkwyk, who also leads the New National Party (NNP), said the report would go to a provincial standing committee for consideration, and that his cabinet would then debate that committee’s recommendations.
”We will also refer this report to other investigative and law enforcement agencies, for instance the directorate of public prosecutions (and) the Scorpions.”
He said the Scorpions had been conducting an investigation separate to the Desai proceedings, but put this on ice because there was an understanding that there should not be parallel probes.
”So we will now provide this body of evidence to them, and it will be in their hands to continue with investigation into certain matters.”
He said it would also be referred to the Public Protector, and to the speaker of the Cape Town unicity for a probe into contraventions of the councillors’ code of conduct.
Commenting on the DA’s dismissal of Desai’s findings, he said any political party that received this kind of judgement on its senior leaders should not brush it off.
”They are a party who are very proud of their approach of preaching to other parties and to other people, and laying down high standards. They must show that they cannot only preach, but that they can practise what they preach. And my impression is that they’re not going to do that.”
”If such a report came out about leaders in my party, I would not hesitate for one minute. I would act immediately.”
ANC provincial leader Ebrahim Rasool said it was a pity the DA remained ”in denial”.
”They know what must be done. They must get rid of Gerald Morkel. They must be able to look within themselves and see what went wrong.”
Rasool said the ANC was very concerned at the commission finding that the DA administration had contravened the letter and spirit of intelligence legislation, and that the WatchDog and bunker had been used primarily for party political purposes.
In a statement issued at the briefing, the provincial ANC said Morkel’s continued occupation of political and official office was an ongoing embarrassment to the City of Cape Town and its citizens.
”Morkel has given Western Cape politics a dirty name and the DA must show maturity by removing him from public office. Morkel must go.”
Morkel, a former premier and unicity mayor, was in meetings on Tuesday and did not return several messages asking for comment.
The commission found, among other things, that the mysterious ”Hans” who allegedly made the DM99 000 donation to the DA, did not exist, and that the donor was German fraud suspect Jurgen Harksen or one of his associates.
In the report, Desai said the evidence of former Western Cape finance MEC Leon Markowitz was, like that of Morkel, ”unsatisfactory in a number of respects, particularly in relation to the inherent probabilities”.
The commission regarded it as probable that the mystery ”Hans” was a fabrication, created by Markowitz either to deal with the donor having been Harksen, or the fact that the money was delivered by a courier sent by him.
The commission drew the ”inevitable conclusion” that Harksen’s insolvency was not considered by Markowitz to be a bar to association with him, or the acceptance of benefits from him.
Regarding Morkel, Desai said he appeared to have taken the view that he was, in his personal capacity, in some way ”entitled to receive donations and benefits from party supporters”.
”The commission finds the receipt of such ‘donations’ from third parties by politicians, in respect of personal expenses, to be most undesirable and likely to lead to abuse,” Desai said.
Both Morkel and Markowitz were the beneficiaries of ”generous hospitality” at Harksen’s expense.
However, Desai concluded that there was no ”acceptable evidence to suggest they received any other monies from Harksen”.
Markowitz told Sapa by telephone that the commission’s findings completely ignored some of the evidence placed before it.
He also warned that if Desai was relying on the evidence of the now-extradited Harksen to reach a judgment, ”then I’m afraid to say I’ll have to challenge him”.
”Specifically, Mr Desai is completely ignoring the evidence — which was totally unchallenged — by my former secretary (Deblesse (subs: correct) Smit) in the provincial government, who came and gave evidence on his own volition, and he said that he recalls a man (”Hans”) coming in.”
”If Mr Desai moves away from any of the evidence documented, I will give serious consideration to taking it (the findings) on review,” Markowitz said. – Sapa