JEANNETTE Harksen, wife of fugitive German businessman Jurgen
Harksen, has been given an ultimatum to appear at an insolvency
inquiry this week.
”We told her we want her there on Friday morning,” one of the
trustees of her husband’s estate, Eileen Fay, said on Wednesday
night.
”If she does not agree to come voluntarily, we will fetch her.”
Mrs Harksen did not turn up at the inquiry, being held at the
Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, earlier this week.
Instead, she sent a doctor’s note saying she was being treated
for depression in Cape Town’s Crescent Clinic.
Magistrate Nigel Jones, who is presiding over the hearing,
issued a warrant for her arrest — which has not yet been executed.
The Harksens’ lawyer Paul Katzeff told Sapa earlier that Mrs
Harksen was still in the clinic, and that she would appear before
the inquiry ”at some stage”.
Harsken himself, who is being held in jail, appeared on Tuesday.
He will be a step closer to knowing his fate on Thursday when
Justice Minister Penuell Maduna returns to South Africa from an
overseas trip.
Maduna must decide whether to extradite Harksen to Germany,
where he is wanted on a string of tax evasion and fraud charges.
Harksen was being probed in South Africa for embezzlement, and
it was reported on Wednesday that the trustees of his estate also
wanted him to be kept in this country.
The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court ordered the extradition last
week. The order needs Maduna’s signature before it can be carried
out.
In recent years Harksen has on technical grounds successfully
appealed two similar orders, but last week he in fact consented to
extradition.
Maduna’s representative Paul Setsetse said on Wednesday that the
minister would return on Thursday morning from a trip to Spain.
National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka had
indicated he would like to consult the minister on the issue before
any decision was taken.
”We hope that we will finalise this whole issue soonest,” he
said. – Sapa