The national director of public prosecutions has refused to take any action on the Oilgate scandal for six months, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).
In a statement on Monday, the party’s minerals spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt said the National Prosecuting Authority’s failure to take any action on this matter to date “is disgraceful and only serves to give the impression that it is desperately hoping the matter with simply go away”.
He had written to the authority more than six months ago.
He said that at the heart of the Oilgate saga were the following “undisputed facts”: On December 19 2003, the state-owned enterprise PetroSA agreed to make an irregular advance payment of R15-million to Imvume Management for a shipment of oil condensate.
“However, instead of using the money to pay for the shipment, Imvume Management used the majority of the advance to make an R11-million donation to the African National Congress’s 2004 election campaign. The donation resulted in Imvume Management’s insolvency and PetroSA having to pay twice for the shipment of condensate.
“PetroSA has since taken several legal steps against Imvume Management to recover the money, eventually agreeing in private on repayment terms, after withdrawing the case from court.”
Schmidt said in short, the South African taxpayer effectively paid R11-million toward the ANC’s 2004 election campaign.
“Six months ago, on 29 July 2005 and following the Public Protector’s findings on the matter, the DA wrote to [the National Director of Public Prosecutions] Advocate Vusi Pikoli to request that the Scorpions undertake an urgent investigation into the Oilgate scandal.
“Although Adv Pikoli’s office responded to say that it had received our request and that it would revert to us, the DA has heard nothing to date.”
He said he had again written to Pikoli asking him urgently to investigate the matter. – I-Net Bridge