Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel explored the possibility of setting up an offshore trust to channel R10-million or more to the Democratic Alliance in South Africa, the Desai Commission was told on Monday.
Attorney Tim Mertens, who works for a company that specialises in setting up offshore trusts, said that it seemed that the money was to come from Switzerland.
He said Morkel came to meet him in January this year, bringing with him Earl Hunter, an attorney who was recommended to Morkel by German fraud suspect Jurgen Harksen, and an accountant.
He understood that the money was to be channelled to another trust in South Africa, the Western Cape Democracy Development Trust (WCDDT).
Mertens said he explained to the three men the demanding due diligence requirements for setting up an offshore trust.
There was no agreement at the meeting on who the ”settler”, or person who signed the application form for establishing the trust, would be.
”It was certainly on that basis we couldn’t go any further, certainly not at that stage,” Mertens said.
Hunter told the commission that he had been a trustee of the WCDDT, and that his understanding was that it had been formed to receive donations for the DA. Morkel leads the DA in the Western Cape.
Harksen claims he donated more that a million rand to Morkel and the DA, which Morkel has denied. – Sapa