The affair of the mystery donor Hans that has plagued the Democratic Alliance for two years was ”100% unsatisfactory”, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Helen Zille said on Friday.
She was speaking on Cape Talk radio after the announcement earlier in the day of a secret settlement with the trustees of fraudster Jurgen Harksen’s estate.
The trustees had claimed that a sum of DM99 000 (about R450 000) given to the DA supposedly by the unidentified ”Hans” in fact came from Harksen.
Asked by presenter John Maytham whether the settlement indicated that the DA was not confident it could make out a case that Hans wasn’t Harksen, she replied: ”Well, the Harksen trustees obviously say that some of his money came to the DA.
”We say we do not believe this to be the case, although I’m the first to agree that this whole Hans business is 100% unsatisfactory.”
Challenged on the decision to keep the agreement secret, she said the attorneys for the two parties had discussed the matter ”at great length” before reaching an agreement.
”Apparently this is quite normal in out-of-court settlements that part of that settlement is where no one gets what they want… that no more will be said about it publicly.
”And that was the agreement between the attorneys. We’re abiding by that.”
She said legal fees in trying to prove the identity of Hans one way or the other would be far more than the amount in dispute, and neither side had concrete proof in the matter.
”We’ve already spent far more on this issue than the initial amount in dispute… we’re hoping to draw a line under this sorry saga.”
The trustees were to have taken the DA to the Cape High Court next week over the DM99 000 which they claimed was part of more than R1-million Harksen said he gave to the party and its former Western Cape leader Gerald Morkel.
The DA and the trustees said in a joint statement on Friday that in order to avoid protracted litigation, the trustees would be ”paid an amount in full and final settlement of all and any claims”.
Each party would pay its own costs, and would not make any other public comment on the matter.
Former Democratic Alliance MEC and fundraiser in the Western Cape Leon Markowitz told the Desai Commission that a tall man with grey curly hair and a ”thick German accent” he knew only as Hans gave him the money in 2001.
However, the commission concluded in its report that ”Hans” did not exist, and that the donor was Harksen or one of his associates.
At the time of the donation Harksen was a declared insolvent, though he was still accessing money from secret sources to finance a lavish lifestyle and buy influence.
The commission drew the ”inevitable conclusion” that Markowitz did not consider Harksen’s insolvency to be a bar to association with or benefits from the fraudster.
Rather, the commission said, the notion of ”Hans” was raised as an afterthought in the hope of distancing the fundraisers from allegations of improper conduct.
An independent audit commissioned by the DA was unable to establish the source of the money.
The trustees have previously recovered some of the millions Harksen took from investors through the auction of two luxury homes he owned in the Cape Town suburb of Constantia, and by selling his cars and jewellery.
Harksen is currently serving a six-year jail sentence in Germany after being convicted of defrauding hundreds of investors of 32-million euros (currently about R250-million).
Meanwhile, almost a million rands worth of assets accumulated by two policemen who stole money from the wife of Harksen were forfeited to the State on Friday.
Inspectors Jan Myburgh and Louis de Jager and Myburgh’s mother Martha were convicted last year of the theft, but have not yet been sentenced.
The two policemen stole at least DM600 000 from an amount conservatively estimated at DM1,8-million, after the money was accidentally found stashed along with R14-million worth of designer jewellery in a locker at a gym in Sea Point and reported to police.
They have agreed to forfeiture which was made an order of court on Friday by regional magistrate Victor Gibson.
In terms of the order, their police pensions, two Opel Astras, a Suzuki GSRX 1100 motorcycle, a .357 Magnum firearm, and a boat with trailer and two Yamaha engines, will be forfeited and the proceeds paid over to the South African Police Service.
The SAPS last year paid R2,25-million in an out-of-court settlement to the trustees of Harksen’s estate as compensation for the theft of the money, which was carried out while the policemen were on duty.
Assets Forfeiture Unit advocate Nicola Nel told the court on Friday that no order was being sought against Myburgh’s mother, who was convicted as an accessory after the fact, for assisting her son in trying to hide the money.
The value of the assets on paper is R1-million, but according to Nel will likely bring in about R800 000.
The Myburghs and De Jager are to be sentenced on June 10. They are out on bail.
Both men are still serving policemen, and have not been suspended, according to their attorney. – Sapa