THE Democratic Alliance — smarting from news reports of its relationship with German fugitive businessmen Jurgen Harksen — wants answers about President Thabo Mbeki alleged links to another fugitive, mafia kingpin Vito Palazzolo.
DA Chief Whip Douglas Gibson will use parliamentary question time on Wednesday to put a question to Deputy President Jacob Zuma on whether Mbeki ever met Palazzolo — as alleged in court this year — to reassure him there was no investigation against him.
Gibson also wants to know whether Mbeki — who was deputy president at the time — was promised any donations from Palazzolo, and if so, the total amount received and for what purpose.
The question follows testimony by Andre Lincoln, who led the now defunct presidential investigation task unit, and is standing trial on nearly 50 corruption-related charges. Lincoln told the Wynberg Regional Court in January that he and Mbeki had met Palazzolo in 1997 and that they had both had assured Palazzolo he was not under investigation so as ”to put him at ease”.
This was to protect an investigation into Palazzolo that was in fact being conducted by Lincoln’s unit, Lincoln testified. Lincoln’s trial resumes on July 9 and it is not clear whether Mbeki or a senior government representative will be called to testify.
The Mail&Guardian reported last month that evidence against Lincoln included a letter he wrote to Palazzolo’s lawyer in August 1997. In it he exonerated Palazzolo on several allegations made against him by Italian investigating authorities, who had been trying to secure Palazzolo’s extradition.
In November last year Lincoln laid charges with the police, claiming that senior National Intelligence Agency officers had offered him incentives, including money, if he were to plead guilty to some charges and not fight them in court. Other charges would be dropped.
In an affidavit, Lincoln claimed the intelligence officers wanted him to ”take the rap” and spare both Mbeki and Sydney Mufamadi, the former safety and security minister, embarrassment in his testimony, the newspaper reported.
State prosecutor André Bouwer in January cross-examined Lincoln on his letter exonerating Palazzolo. Lincoln maintained that Mbeki had sanctioned the letter to put Palazzolo at ease and shield the investigation.
Bouwer pointed out that Palazzolo could have used Lincoln’s written exoneration to protect him from the reach of Italian law, and asked whether Lincoln was inferring that Mbeki had agreed to ”lies being circulated to foreign countries”.
Lincoln answered: ”Most definitely the president knew about all the facts. And I can go further to say, your worship, that the president understood the need to protect this investigation, even later than this. Around November 1997, after the Mail&Guardian, started exposing the investigation, I went together with Vito Palazzolo to the president’s office, where the president reassured him that there was no investigation against him.”
Other questions that Zuma will be asked, include the extent of financial assistance to Zimbabwe by the South African government in the last year.
DA justice representative Tertius Delport, a cabinet minister during apartheid rule, was himself close to Palazzolo. He reportedly admitted in 1991 that he had secured jobs for Palazzolo’s sons. – Sapa