The Presidency has slammed the door on further questions about Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's controversial trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — as the focus intensifies on whether the informal meetings she held related to matters of public benefit or to the private business interests of her travelling companions.
On Wednesday night, presidential spokesperson Murphy Morobe refused to respond to detailed questions from the Mail & Guardian about Mlambo-Ngcuka’s "informal" visits to infrastructure projects in the UAE.
Details of those visits and interactions are crucial because Mlambo-Ngcuka was accompanied on the trip by her husband, Bulelani Ngcuka — and, it emerged this week, by Thuthukile ÂMazibuko-Skweyiya, the wife of ÂMinister of Social Development Zola ÂSkweyiya. Both have private interests in the property and construction sector.
The visit cost the state about R700Â 000, relating mainly to the use of an air force jet to transport the vice-presidential party.
When the scandal broke early last week, the presidency immediately conceded that the visit was private. But it insisted that, for security reasons, the president and his deputy were entitled to use state travel facilities regardless of the purpose.
Mlambo-Ngcuka then opened a can of worms by suggesting the visit was partly work-related, referring vaguely to inquiries she had pursued in the UAE regarding project management and "crane building".
That backfired. The Presidency issued two further statements emphasising that the visit was private, while maintaining that Mlambo-Ngcuka had nevertheless "informally" paid visits and had interactions relating to infrastructure development. This was relevant to the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (Asgisa) for which she is responsible, the Presidency said.
Both statements referred to the development of "project management skills" for infrastructure projects. Mazibuko-Sweyiya’s presence was ascribed to her voluntary contribution to an Asgisa programme on infrastructure project management skills.
The government has not provided details of Mlambo-Ngcuka’s visits. M&G questions to the Presidency this week, including a request to "detail all the institutions and persons the DP met as part of her investigation into project management/infrastructure projects", were rebuffed with a statement that a "comprehensive response" had already been provided.
But the question remains whether Mlambo-Ngcuka’s visits advanced the private interests of her husband and Mazibuko-Skweyiya, a close friend. In at least two areas, their private interests are uncomfortably close:
- Both Ngcuka and Mazibuko-ÂSkweyiya became shareholders in financial services conglomerate Old Mutual through separate investment vehicles in the Old Mutual empowerment deal finalised last April. An Old Mutual subsidiary, Old Mutual Properties, is described in company literature as "the most significant property manager and developer in South Africa". Among its services is project management.
- Ngcuka’s investment group, Amabubesi, registered another offshoot, Amabubesi Project Management, last August. In late 2004, it registered Amabubesi Construction and Amabubesi Infrastructure. The activities of these companies were not immediately clear.
- Ngcuka’s Amabubesi and Metallon, the investment vehicle of another family friend, controversial empowerment figure Mzi Khumalo, became joint majority -Âshareholders in construction giant Basil Read last month. The deal, which may be the largest empowerment deal in the construction industry, was finalised as Mlambo-Ngcuka and her husband headed off the UAE. Basil Read is active in civil engineering, roads, building and opencast mining.
A representative of Ngcuka this week referred queries to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s office, while Mazibuko-Skweyiya did the same.
Mazibuko-Skweyiya’s relationship with Mlambo-Ngcuka has been the subject of much speculation. When she completed her tour as ambassador to France in 1993, she considered joining the Imvume group of Oilgate’s Sandi Majali, who was also close to Bonga Mlambo, Mlambo-Ngcuka’s brother.
The M&G exposed last year how Mazibuko-Skweyiya and Mlambo received transfers from Imvume. Mazibuko-Skweyiya said it was a loan, while Mlambo’s benefit was explained as connected with a field unrelated to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s then-portfolio of minerals and energy.
Mazibuko-Skweyiya has, however, benefited greatly from at least one mining opportunity initiated while Mlambo-Ngcuka was minister. She became a shareholder in and chairperson of new miner Wesizwe Platinum in 2004. When the company listed last month, her 7,3% stake, acquired for a nominal amount, was valued at about R100-Âmillion. The shares were worth about R60-million this week.
Khumalo, Ngcuka’s partner in Basil Read, is no stranger to the UAE. When he turned 50 in November he treated a number of guests to a birthday bash in the desert outside Abu Dhabi, the UAE city Mlambo-Ngcuka visited. A source said Ngcuka was also there — a claim the M&G was unable to confirm.
Khumalo’s business interests include a hotel development at ÂZimbali in KwaZulu-Natal. The Kuwaiti group IFA Hotels and Resorts, which plans to list in South Africa shortly, has bought into Zimbali, although it is unclear whether this has direct bearing on Khumalo’s development.
IFA is the major investor in The Palm, a prestige island resort in the UAE.
A platinum princess
Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya — Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s close friend and companion on her trip to Abu Dabi — is one of the new breed of tough, assertive and ambitious black women to rise to prominence under the African National Congress government, writes Tumi Makgetla
A former exile who returned to South Africa in 1990 with a master’s in politics from an East German university, Mazibuko-Skweyiya registered her presence as the first woman deputy director general of foreign affairs in 1995.
As head of relations with Asia and the Middle East, she negotiated South Africa’s shifting of ties from the Republic of Taiwan to the ÂPeople’s Republic of China.
Commenting on her foreign affairs experience, she told The Herald: "The Middle East was the most difficult region — as a woman, you are not expected to shake hands with a man, but you have to market your country. I had to put aside my personal feelings — the issue was not shaking hands — it was my job, and Nelson Mandela expected me to do my job."
Mazibuko-Skweyiya rose to acting director general of foreign affairs and was chairperson of the diplomatic training advisory committee before becoming South Africa’s ambassador to France in 1999 and serving as a permanent delegate to Unesco.
In 2002, the French government released the remains of Saartjie Baartman into her care. "Saartjie Baartman is beginning her final journey home," she is quoted as saying, "to a free, democratic, non-sexist and non-racist South Africa. She’s a symbol of our national need to confront our past and restore dignity to all our people."
But it is as an entrepreneur, particularly in mining, that Mazibuko-Skweyiya has been most visible. She is the chairperson of Wesizwe Platinum and also Aflease Gold & Uranium Resources, CEO of Fikza Investment Holdings and a director of Orlyfunt Holdings. She also sits on the board of Wescoal and Total South Africa.
At a Women’s Day dinner in 2004, she told guests: "You might have to be tough to be successful in a man’s world, but a woman’s secret weapon is to be tough with a smile."
Last year, she blotted her copybook when it emerged, as part of the Mail & Guardian’s Oilgate disclosures, she had received a R65 000 loan from Imvume Management CEO Sandi Majali for improvements to the house of her and husband, Social Development Minister Zola Skweiyiya. The Imvume group partnered Cash Paymaster Services, which had lucrative contracts to pay social grants.
Air farce
January 10: Media and Democratic Alliance claim that Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka took a five-day holiday to the United Arab Emirates. Estimated costs of the trip vary from R400 000 to R700Â 000. The government paid for it. In reaction, the Presidency confirms the claim and states it is standard practice to take full responsibility for the costs of both official and private travel of the president and his deputy.
January 12: Mlambo-Ngcuka suggests the trip was part official as she had interÂactions relating to infrastructure development.
January 13: The Presidency denies that the trip was official, but confirms interactions and visits relating to project management skills development, which would boost South Africa’s accelerated growth initiative.
January 16: Mlambo-Ngcuka is accused of taking Cabinet member Zola Skweyiya and his wife Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya, her close friend, along on her travels. The Presidency denies that Skweyiya was on the trip.
January 17: The Presidency admits that her husband Bulelani Ngcuka, Mazibuko-Skweyiya and her personal assistant accompanied the deputy president. The South African ambassador to the UAE arranged visits to various construction sites, related to her interest in project management. The DA and Freedom Front Plus request Public Prosecutor Lawrence Mushwana to investigate the deputy president’s conduct, a request he later grants.