Dissenting Myburgh Commission member Christine Qunta has recommended that Deutsche Bank and Nampak should be referred to the prosecuting authorities for the role she alleges they played in last year’s crash of the rand.
Lawyer Qunta’s minority report, and the commission’s majority report, were formally released in Pretoria on Thursday by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna. The majority report, compiled by chairperson John Myburgh and Development Bank of South Africa executive Mandla Gantsho, was leaked to the media last month.
Qunta also called for investigations into the rand’s fall to continue, claiming certain of the commission’s witnesses and assistants were compromised by conflicts of interest.
“Such an investigation should not be a public one, in order to meet some of the legitimate concerns of confidentiality of persons and institutions who may be the subject of investigations,” she says.
However, Maduna was adamant that without new evidence the commission would not spend another cent on the probe, which had already cost R14,7-million.
He said he had not studied Qunta’s submission. However, he would submit it to the director of public prosecutions for a decision on whether to take action against the named firms.
Maduna insisted the commission had not been a waste of money, saying the original projected cost had been R25-million. Allegations had been made and “the government would have been remiss had we not appointed this commission”.
Qunta was appointed commissioner amid controversy that she might be biased because her news-paper columns had suggested “unpatriotic” sentiment among whites may have stoked the rand’s plunge.
The Myburgh commission was set up after allegations by Kevin Wakeford, South African Chamber of Business CEO, to President Thabo Mbeki that illegal transactions led to the rand’s headlong depreciation.
He alleged that Deutsche Bank and its clients, Sasol, Nampak, Billiton and M-Cell, conspired to drive down the value of the rand, but was unable to substantiate these claims during the commission’s hearings.
In her report, Qunta says the commission was constrained by “insufficient time to complete the various investigations to the extent that would have been desirable”.
Witnesses had been hampered by the fact that the hearings were public, and sensitive information could have fallen into the hands of business rivals.
The South African foreign exchange market was small, and the commission’s assistants were “invariably” affiliated with institutions.
Maduna refused to release Myburgh and Gantsho’s response to Qunta’s report, saying he “did not want an endless process”.
Qunta finds that the commission’s investigating team failed to state whether Deutsche’s transactions fuelled the rand’s slide. “They did, however state that in [the transactions of] Nampak, the rand depreciated. The same applies with Sasol.”
The M-Cell share placement fell outside the period under review and was not dealt with in her report. However, Qunta recommends that it be investigated on the same basis as the Nampak and Sasol transactions.