/ 13 September 2002

Comrades clash over funds

Outraged former political prisoners are threatening legal action against their comrades in a desperate bid, they say, to uncover what has happened to funds earmarked for them.

To date they have received neither audited financial statements from a fund set up in their name, nor lists of the names of former prisoners who supposedly benefited from the fund.

This is the latest round in an increasingly bitter battle between former comrades — many of whom spent years incarcerated together.

Recently the management of Robben Island have been embroiled in controversy over alleged malpractices. The scandal, which was widely reported in the media, led to the resignation of Andre Odendaal as Director of Robben Island. But many questions about mismanagement of the Island and funds earmarked for former inmates remain unanswered.

The former prisoners say they have no choice but to let the law take its course because to date their efforts to get answers have been futile. They insist they have not received a cent from the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Fund and the Makana Trust, which were created to improve their lives.

The two funding organs were created in 1995 by the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Management Committee — a body chaired by former Robben Island prisoner Ahmed Kathrada, who is also chairperson of the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Fund and the Robben Island Museum Council.

Kathrada has refused to comment on the allegations, saying he has given ”an undertaking to the management committee not to speak to the press”.

The management committee includes stalwarts of the anti-apartheid struggle Tokyo Sexwale — who is chairperson of the Makana Trust — Jeff Radebe, Sothomela Ndukwana and Peter Paul Ngwenya.

Ndukwana and Ngwenya (also a member of the old Mail & Guardian board) are founding trustees of the Makana Trust, which owns 51% of Makana Investments (pty) Ltd. The other 49% of Makana Investments belongs to Web Wire (pty) Ltd, which is 100% owned by the trustees.

The deed of the Makana Trust gives the founding trustees discretionary powers to administer donations to the trust, as long as this is deemed ”advantageous to the trust”.

”But there is a groundswell of anger emanating from former political prisoners. They say neither the fund nor the trust set up in their name has benefited them at all.

”Some of our most respected comrades have failed us miserably,” says Vincent James, who was recently elected chairperson of the (newly reconstituted) Western Cape branch of the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Council.

”They no longer have the mandate to represent us so we are mobilising province by province, creating our own structures, which will directly represent and address the concerns of ex-political prisoners.”

Chief among the former prisoners’ concerns are estimated millions donated to the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Fund. Their suspicions have been fuelled by an article in the M&G in May in which it was reported that about R3-million had been raised for the fund by Suzanne Weil Associates, a Gauteng-based events management company.

At the time the article appeared both Weil and Kathrada said this money had been used to help finance funerals of former prisoners. Weil said about R5000 per former prisoner was donated by the fund.

”We dispute this and have demanded a list from Weil and Kathrada of the names of deceased comrades whose families supposedly benefited from these funds,” says James.

To date a list has not been provided.

The former political prisoners have also demanded audited financial statements from the fund since its inception. At a meeting on July 28 they asked Kathrada to deliver audited financial statements by August 2. At a meeting on August 11 Kathrada sent a letter apologising for not attending the meeting and for not submitting the requested audits. In the letter, dated August 10, he berated his comrades for ”serious allegations that are being spread about me which are completely untrue”. He also promised to do ”everything in my power to ensure that the audited statements are completed as soon as possible”.

On August 20 the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Council sent Kathrada a lawyer’s letter of demand. To date audited financial statements have not been provided.

By law, a funding organisation is obliged to submit annual audited financial returns. The Ex-Political Prisoners’ Council insists that audited reports from the fund have never been seen.

Weil says almost all the financial audits since the fund’s inception have been completed. The outstanding reports are from 2000 to 2002. She attributes the delay to the fact that one of the auditors ”recently took ill”.

But a spokesperson from auditing firm Girnun and Co, which is completing the audits, says Weil’s explanation is ”patent nonsense”.

”Whether or not one of us has been ill has nothing whatsoever to do with the financial reports,” he says. ”The reason for the delay is very simple. We are waiting for either Ms Weil or Mr Kathrada to provide us with important bank information before we can complete our audit from 2000 to 2002.”

It is unclear how many bank accounts are operated by the fund and who has signing power. The Ex-Political Prisoners’ Council says there are two accounts, but previously Kathrada said there is only one over which he, Weil and Ngwenya have signing power. Ngwenya is overseas until September 16 and could not be contacted for comment. Weil denies she has signing power.

Weil’s company was responsible for organising the reunion of former political prisoners on Robben Island in 1995 which resulted in the formation of the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Management Committee and their two funding bodies, the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Fund and the Makana Trust. Weil and Associates also subsequently organised a banquet for then-president Nelson Mandela to which celebrity Bill Cosby was invited. Former prisoners say this event yielded millions in donations, but Weil says she is unsure of the exact amount.

Disturbing questions revolve around the role of the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Management Committee, which was to have ensured that former prisoners and their families would be looked after.

Sources say the committee was dysfunctional from the start and the structures of the committee, fund and trust seemed so complex that no one knew how each related to the other and to Robben Island itself. Money could not be given to the prisoners without the consent of the management committee, yet the committee rarely met because its high-profile members were too busy.

Finally, on August 28 — the day of the launch of the Makana Investment Helicopter Company — the management committee agreed to meet angry former prisoners.

”At first the management committee refused to meet with us,” says council vice-chairperson Jama Matakata. ”Eventually they promised a conference will be held by October at which we will all place a no-confidence vote in the present management committee.

”But they have let us down so badly that this is probably one more promise they will not keep.”