The Democratic Alliance is to take no action against its Western Cape leader, Gerald Morkel, after an audit failed to show conclusive proof that he accepted cash from German tax fugitive Jurgen Harksen.
However, the forensic audit ordered by DA leader Tony Leon in May leaves unresolved the source of DM99 000 — part of the DM105 000 Harksen told the Desai commission he gave former Western Cape finance MEC Leon Markovitz.
The auditors’ report finds that the handling of the DM99 000 was irregular, but that ”the identity of the donor is uncertain”. It says there was no apparent reason why sacked Absa senior manager and DA member Erik Marais should ”risk his own exposure” to forex authorities.
The Desai commission heard that the Deutschmarks were collected from Markovitz’s office after a phone call by Morkel. Later DM99 000 were exchanged and paid into DA bank accounts in five instalments by Marais between August 2001 and January 2002. This amount corresponds with the R269 000 the DA acknowledged it received as anonymous donations when the funding scandal first broke.
Morkel and Markovitz vehemently maintain the donation came from a German businessman ”Hans”, whose identity and whereabouts remain a mystery. Neither the private investigator Markovitz told the auditors he had hired, nor the trustees of Harksen’s sequestrated estate, nor the Scorpions, who have probed money laundering, fraud and corruption charges, have found Hans.
The Scorpions unit is waiting until the Desai commission ends before deciding whether to prosecute.
While the DA does not intend to take disciplinary steps against Morkel, a political judgement at the Western Cape DA congress in October could still destroy his political career.
”If it wasn’t for the DM99 000 the whole thing would be over,” said DA management committee chairperson James Selfe.