Two Democratic Alliance Western Cape MPLs have laid charges of bribery and/or corruption against members of the New National Party, including party leader and Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
MPLs Robin Carlisle and Alan Winde said the charges laid on Thursday relate to planning permission in exchange for donations to the party.
In an affidavit supporting the charges, the two MPLs said they became aware on Sunday of a notice of motion signed by Francois Dercksen, director of C-Max Investments 89, to the Cape Town High Court.
C-Max had applied to the court to set aside a decision by Johan Gelderblom as former provincial minister agriculture, environment and development planning, on April 8 2004, to refuse C-Max’s appeal against the decision of the Stellenbosch municipality not to allow it to encroach on the permissible height restriction of 10m — by a maximum of 1,87m — on a Stellenbosch property.
Carlisle and Winde said they had obtained copies of the motion and the affidavit signed by Dercksen.
After considering these documents, and taking into account a number of related matters ”which we had separately reported to the Western Cape legislature during 2002 and 2003”, they concluded that the actions of Van Schalkwyk (former Western Cape premier), Gelderblom (then a provincial minister and NNP fund-raiser), Andre Gaum (former provincial minister of education) and Francois Beukman (Parliament’s public accounts committee chairperson) regarding the appeal gave rise to ”concerns of irregularity”.
These were based on facts, alleged facts and allegations under oath.
DA investigations into the alleged ”targeting” of developers awaiting decisions from Gelderblom’s department brought to light a list of developers.
”This list includes in certain cases the development; the name or contact of the developer; the [environment department] file number; the NNP fund-raiser and comments on the fund-raising attempts.
”While Van Schalkwyk denied that the NNP had drawn up such a list, and while we have no certain proof that the list was drawn up by the NNP, nevertheless in at least two cases, persons whose names were on the list confirmed that they had been approached by NNP fund-raisers.”
According to Dercksen’s founding affidavit, his appeal was turned down after he declined to make a R200 000 donation to the NNP.
”It is clear that the allegations contained in the founding affidavit would, if established, constitute serious irregularities on the part of Van Schalkwyk, Gaum, Gelderblom and Beukman,” Carlisle and Winde said. — Sapa
NNP calls charges ‘sewer politics’