Fresh allegations of financial misconduct against Evert Knoesen, the suspended director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, surfaced this week, sparking further turmoil in the tight-knit world of gay politics.
The project collapsed in April this year as a result of financial problems allegedly aggravated by Knoesen’s mismanagement.
The Mail & Guardian has received a ”charge sheet” issued to Knoesen by the board of the project before his suspension on April 15.
This accuses him of paying himself overtime when he had no right to do so, granting himself and employees loans when he knew ”the project was facing severe cash flow problems”, and selling insurance policies to his workers, with himself as broker.
On the insurance allegation, the board says: ”You used your position as director to unjustifiably and unlawfully enrich yourself in that you ensured that you received a commission on one or more of the policies [awarded to staff members]”.
In February this year, Knoesen also allegedly paid himself a double salary, some of which he repaid later the same month.
He is also accused of unauthorised travel to a human rights conference in Geneva at the project’s expense, and of failing to repay a R35 000 loan from the project, despite an undertaking to the board to do so.
As it was decided to suspend him, the disciplinary hearing never took place. The M&G has been unable to contact him for three weeks.
After the M&G reported on Knoesen’s suspension on July 7, things turned nasty. A member of the public, Riaan Oosthuizen, called the paper, claiming that the project’s media officer, Paul Tilly, had used R93 000 of the project’s funding for legal fees to win an interdict against him — also with Knoesen’s say-so.
In April last year, noseweek ran a sensational investigation into the abusive relationship between Oosthuizen and Tilly — and the former’s call to the M&G appears to be the latest salvo in their ongoing war.
After the equality project’s collapse, Tilly took responsibility for organising the Gay Pride celebrations, due in September.
Equality project chairperson Jonathan Berger said Tilley’s court case had not appeared on Knoesen’s charge sheet because it was in line with the project’s commitment to litigating on behalf of the lesbian and gay community.
However, the vast amount spent on the case would never have been authorised, as it did not set an important legal precedent.
”The board saw the matter as a domestic squabble,” Berger said. ”There was no human rights issue here; no equality issue. It sounded like the kind of case we would not have supported because it set no precedent.”
Asked about the case and its costs, Tilly said: ”I felt incredibly indebted towards Evert [Knoesen]. He showed me the bills and I was horrified, but I knew they did this for other people. Maybe he felt he couldn’t abandon me halfway through.”
Tilly’s affidavit in his court action accused Oosthuizen of ”physical, verbal, emotional, psychological or economical abuse”, including ongoing loitering outside Tilly’s home and workplace, repeated telephone calls and text messages and threats.
Support for Tilly also came from the equality project’s former lawyers, Nicholls, Cambanis and Associates, who represented him in the case.
The firm’s Crystal Cambanis said that Tilly had tried to get police protection against Oosthuizen. ”However, when he went to the police station in Parkview, Johannessburg, he was not treated as a member of the public should be treated. The police attitude was that it was just some moffies fighting.”
A beneficial side-effect was the resignation of the relevant police officer.