The spat between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) over the Oilgate scandal grew on Tuesday with the DA accusing the NPA of ”failing to do its mandated duty”.
An NPA statement on Monday following the DA’s renewed request for the NPA to probe the scandal was misleading and side-stepped the key issue, DA minerals and energy spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt said.
Schmidt said the DA’s initial request for an investigation was faxed to the NPA on July 29, 2005, immediately after the Public Protector found he could not investigate the matter fully because Imvume Management was a private company.
”The DA’s request for an investigation was also lodged with the NPA before the matter was brought to the attention of the South African Police Service (SAPS),” Schmidt said.
Secondly, the NPA’s suggestion that it was opposed to a ”parallel investigation” was disingenuous.
”The very purpose behind the creation of the NPA was that it would … identify key cases, primarily involving corruption, and lead an investigation to ensure results that the SAPS simply does not have the capacity to produce.
”There can be no doubt that the Oilgate scandal fits all these criteria.
”The ANC has pocketed what is effectively R11-million worth of taxpayers’ money, and it has not had to answer to anyone. By refusing to take up the matter, the NPA is simply failing to do its mandated duty,” Schmidt said.
Thirdly, the excuse that it had ”not received” the DA’s complaint was both inaccurate and evasive.
Monday’s ”complaint” was not an original request; it was simply a follow-up.
Schmidt said the DA’s original request was confirmed to have been received by the NPA on August 2, 2005.
At the time, the NPA wrote: ”The matter has been noted and will be brought to the attention of the national director after which we will revert to you”. The NPA never reverted to the DA.
”It is quite clear from the conduct of the NPA that it does not regard the Oilgate scandal as important or urgent,” Schmidt said.
On Monday, NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said the NPA had yet to receive a complaint by the DA about its handling of the scandal.
”When the said complaint is brought to the NPA’s attention, it will be given due consideration on the basis of its merits,” he said.
Nkosi, however, voiced concern at the DA’s conduct in the matter, accusing Schmidt of ”improper and incorrect utterances that apparently seek to cast aspersions on the NPA and its integrity”.
In his response, Nkosi repeated the NPA’s position when the matter was referred to it several months ago: the complaint had been referred to the Public Protector.
The NPA had further suggested that anyone who believed the law was broken in the course of the oil deal refer their complaints to the SAPS.
”The NPA is opposed to a parallel investigation on this or any other matter,” Nkosi said.
However, the Freedom Front Plus said on Monday the Oilgate matter was still under investigation by the police after the FF Plus filed charges against Imvume Management in August last year.
The party was recently advised by the investigating officer that the matter was still under investigation.
”We were therefore surprised to learn that the DA approached the National Prosecuting Authority,” the FF Plus’ Willie Spies said.
The comments by the NPA that it was not investigating the matter were therefore not surprising and in line with the logical sequence of events, he said.
The issue emerged after the state-owned enterprise PetroSA agreed to make an irregular advance payment of R15-million to Imvume Management for a shipment of oil condensate on December 19, 2003.
However, instead of using the money to pay for the shipment, Imvume used most of the advance to make an R11-million donation to the African National Congress’ 2004 election campaign.
The donation resulted in Imvume’s insolvency and PetroSA having to pay twice for the shipment of condensate.
PetroSA took legal action against Imvume to recover the money, but eventually agreed in private on repayment terms, after withdrawing the case from court. – Sapa