The empowerment company accused of funnelling millions of rands of taxpayers’ money to the African National Congress defended itself against new claims on Saturday after it came up in Parliament that the company had given money to the relatives of government ministers.
In the National Assembly on Friday, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) called for an urgent debate about ”apparent conflicts of interest” Imvume Management had committed.
These involved payments to close relatives of the ministers of mineral and energy affairs and of social development in December 2003.
The claims come a little more than a week after the Johannesburg High Court prevented the Mail & Guardian from publishing an article alleging that Imvume had donated funds advanced from state oil company PetroSA to the ANC.
”The projects in which Imvume was concerned, and in which Imvume had an interest with the departments of social welfare and minerals and energy respectively, were already subject to valid and binding contracts concluded well before the time of the payments referred to in the FF+ motion and other media speculation,” a statement by Imvume said.
It was delivered by Imvume’s lawyers, Barry Aaron and Associates.
The company said Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya was a long-standing friend of Imvume’s chief executive, Sandi Majali, and that it had given the minister’s wife the loan of R65 000 in terms of ”a written acknowledgement of debt”.
”Imvume and Mr Majali did not disguise the transaction then and nor do they do so now. The loan has been repaid by Mrs Mazibuko-Skweyiya to Mr Majali, in full,” the company said.
It also said Imvume was involved in a property development project in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park with Uluntu Investment, a company headed by Minister of Minerals and Energy Affairs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s brother, Bonga Molambo.
”Imvume, in terms of its commitment to the joint project, paid R50 000 to the consultants in September 2003 and R50 000 to its co-bidder, Ulunto Investments. The payments were made in the legitimate pursuit of Imvume’s business activities.”
Imvume also gave its version of the claims made by the M&G.
It said it had been awarded a contract by PetroSA worth nearly a billion rand to supply feedstock in the Mossgas oil-from-gas process.
The contract was given to Imvume as a ”credible, reliable, emerging black economic empowerment entity in the process of transformation in the oil industry in South Africa”.
Any payments made by PetroSA to Imvume were unrelated payments by Imvume to the ANC, the company said.
It said Majali had always been a ”staunch supporter” of the ANC.
”The details of such support are confidential between him and the political party concerned,” the company said. ”Imvume incurred an obligation to PetroSA at the time that financial support was given to the ANC.”
The company blasted the Business Day newspaper, which published details of the scandal dubbed ”Oilgate” in its Friday edition, for ”circumventing” the court order against the M&G, which also applied to all media organisations.
”Business Day alleged that airing the controversy in Parliament would circumvent the court order by taking advantage of parliamentary privilege.
”Imvume and Mr Majali object to the breach of the word and spirit of the order of the court by the spurious and questionable tactic of raising the issue in Parliament pending the final determination of the court action.” — Sapa