There had been nothing inappropriate about socialising with Italian Count Riccardo Agusta while his own department was deciding on Riccardo’s planned Roodefontein golf estate development, former Western Cape environment MEC David Malatsi said on Wednesday.
Malatsi was under cross-examination in the Bellville Regional Court, where he and former Western Cape Premier Peter Marais have pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption.
The state alleges they took R400 000 from Agusta, who has already paid a R1-million fine after a corruption plea bargain with the Scorpions in 2002, to smooth the way for approval of the project on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay.
Malatsi told the court that after hearing a complaint from Riccardo’s representative Richard Browning, that the department officials responsible for making the decision had been shifting the goal posts, and that Agusta was threatening to take his investment elsewhere, he and Marais visited Roodefontein on April 5 2002.
There they were taken by Agusta and Browning on a helicopter flip over Roodefontein and another development the count was involved in at George, shown a scale model of the project, and given a PowerPoint presentation and refreshments.
He and Marais had lunched at a Plettenberg Bay hotel and that evening they returned to Roodefontein for a spaghetti dinner with the wealthy Italian.
Malatsi insisted that they did not talk about the R550-million development over dinner. Instead, he said, ”we were listening to Riccardo, his stories, where he comes from and to Agusta’s jokes”.
Asked whether he did not feel at the time that the entire visit to Roodefontein was inappropriate, Malatsi responded that it was ”not illegal”.
Pressed by Morrison on whether it had been inappropriate, he replied: ”I don’t think so. The matter was not before me, it was not an appeal.”
He said he had been doing what was expected of him, which was to deal with blockages in the workings of his department. In hindsight, however, it would have been better had his own officials been there to present their side of the story. At the time he had not thought of it.
Malatsi was at the time the appeal authority in the approval process, and was in fact required later that year to consider an appeal by the Roodefontein team after his department gave a conditional go-ahead to the project.
Malatsi told the court that officials dealing with the application had been racist and deliberately obstructive.
He said he had promised Marais a decision on the matter by April 19.
However the department staffer responsible for issuing a formal record of decision (ROD), Ingrid Coetzee, refused to do so, and told him instead to withdraw her delegated authority to issue RODs.
This was tantamount to her saying ”I won’t take instructions from a black man,” Malatsi said.
A claim by another department staffer, legal adviser Clarissa Molteno, that he had been playing with his cellphone during a briefing session on the workings of the department and the legislation it was responsible for, was a ”typical racist” comment, he said.
”What’s racist about that?” asked Morrison.
”Blacks like to play. They are not paying attention,” replied Malatsi.
He said he had been using the phone, a Nokia 9210, to take notes on the briefing.
Malatsi also revealed that in January 2002 he was approached by African National Congress member of Parliament Reggie Oliphant over a plan to set up a driving range in Oliphant’s home town Oudtshoorn where previously disadvantaged people could practice golf.
Oliphant had complained that Malatsi’s department would not give a ROD for the project because an environmental impact assessment had not been undertaken.
Oliphant wanted an exemption from these requirements, Malatsi said. He did not tell the court whether he acted on the request.
Oliphant, who was also at one time deputy mayor of Oudtshoorn, was killed in 2003.
The hearing continues on Thursday. – Sapa