The political careers of Deputy Social Development Minister David Malatsi and former Western Cape premier Peter Marais are set to end over the R300 000 donation from Count Riccardo Agusta, a friend and distant relative of Mafia boss Vito Palazzolo.
In a new development on Thursday, Western Cape Democratic Alliance member Robin Carlisle laid criminal charges of corruption, bribery and intimidation against Malatsi, Marais and Agusta, as well as asking for a criminal investigation into the role of New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
Prosecuting authorities had privately complained earlier in the week that Van Schalkwyk had referred what was clearly a criminal matter only to the public protector.
While Van Schalkwyk claimed to know nothing of the donation until December 23 as a result of his own inquiries, Marais embarrassingly contradicted him this week and claimed the NNP leader was in the know from the start. Van Schalkwyk rejected this as ”an outright lie”.
On Thursday Malatsi was still defying an agreement to step down reached between him and Van Schalkwyk at the weekend. His about-turn and Marais’s implication of Van Schalkwyk have apparently sealed the end of their political careers, according to senior NNP members.
Malatsi last year approved Agusta’s Roodefontein golf estate development in Plettenberg Bay while he was still Western Cape MEC responsible for the environment, but against strong opposition from his own department. He allegedly forced the approval immediately after a R300 000 donation to the NNP from Agusta on April 18.
Ironically, it has emerged that Marais requested the R300 000 donation in writing from Agusta after meeting him on April 17 — days after he extended the terms of the Desai commission to cover German fugitive Jurgen Harksen’s alleged donations to the DA.
NNP executive director Darryl Swanepoel on Thursday said the federal executive would ”as a matter of urgency” consider the actions of Malatsi and Marais and come to ”an informed decision”.
According to the NNP constitution, the national leader or the executive committee can suspend a party representative at national and provincial level without a disciplinary hearing.
However, it is President Thabo Mbeki’s prerogative to fire ministers and their deputies. Mbeki is expected to meet Malatsi on the sidelines of this week’s Cabinet lekgotla.
This week the Western Cape DA insisted that Van Schalkwyk, who micromanaged every decision, must have known about the donation.
”The R300 000 is probably the most money they have had for a long time. You tell me he wouldn’t know. Forget it!” snapped Carlisle.
The DA first raised the link between Roodefontein and Mafia don Palazzolo on July 30 last year in the Western Cape legislature, asserting that Palazzolo had ”pressurised the then premier [Marais], along with minister Malatsi, to approve this sensitive development”.
On Thursday DA leader Tony Leon said the matter went to the heart of governance. Even at the height of the Desai inquiry there had never been any suggestion money was given for a change in government policy.
Referring to the events that led to the NNP leaving the DA and joining the African National Congress as cooperative governance partner last year, Leon said: ”Mr Van Schalkwyk chose to destroy the DA in defence of Mr Marais. And now Mr Marais, Mr Malatsi and Mr Van Schalkwyk are fighting like three cats in a sack.”
In turn the NNP insisted bank statements and other documents that Van Schalkwyk requested and received last month had put Van Schalkwyk in the know for the first time — and that he had now acted on that. As Agusta’s donation was paid into the party’s Western Cape bank account, the matter would have been handled only by Marais.
In addition, the NNP has obtained an affidavit by provincial party secretary Freddie Adams, stating that Marais had ordered him to delete the donation request from his computer, the NNP said.
Van Schalkwyk, who became premier in June 2002, appears to have been sufficiently concerned about the Roodefontein approval to request a probe into the administrative process by acting environmental affairs MEC Johan Gelderblom.
This was done the day after Malatsi, who earlier twice told the premier there was nothing to worry about, moved to the national government at the start of November. In early December the NNP-led provincial government announced it would take the approval on review to the Cape High Court.
As early as June 2001 the Mail & Guardian revealed the close personal and business ties between Palazzolo and Agusta, a winemaker and a former racing driver who is heir to the Agusta military helicopter fortune. The two men are believed to share an ancestor.
The business dealings between the two came to light in the controversial use of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund logo on La Vie de Luc mineral water. Agusta had acquired the bottling plant in Franschhoek in the late 1990s from Palazzolo, who remained as consultant to Agusta. His son, Christian von Palace Kolbatschenko, stayed on as general manager.
Similar links have emerged over the Roodefontein development. The two companies that seem to be behind the development of Roodefontein as an upmarket golf estate are La Terra de Luc and Count Agusta Golf and Equestrian Estate. Although Agusta is the formally stated owner, Palazzolo’s son, Von Palace Kolbatschenko, was still listed as a director or member of both companies last November.
Just how cavalier Malatsi allegedly was about environmental rules regarding development is illustrated by an affidavit from a Plettenberg Bay councillor. He states that on April 5 last year Marais and Malatsi visited Roodefontein. The next day, they met the Belgian investors behind another controversial development. The councillor, who was present, claims Malatsi told the Belgians: ”Don’t worry, I’ll approve all your developments. Give me an environmental management plan and show me how my people will benefit.” If true, Malatsi effectively gave the developers the go-ahead to ignore stringent requirements such as an environmental impact assessment.
On April 17 Marais and Malatsi again met the count. A day later Marais, also the NNP Western Cape leader at the time, asked Adams to write to Agusta to request the donation. The R300 000 was electronically transferred the next day.
On April 19 Malatsi withdrew from Ingrid Coetzee, provincial director of environmental planning, the power to veto developments. The go-ahead for Roodefontein was given on May 6.
The Wildlife and Environmental Society of Southern Africa lodged objections to the lack of due administrative process and concerns that the development would harm Plettenberg Bay’s water resources.
On October 24 Malatsi went further, dismissing the objections appeal and overturning several conditions his own department had set — in effect making things even easier for Agusta.
Additional reporting by Stefaans Brümmer