Multimillionaire Italian Count Riccardo Agusta has never attended a single day of the marathon corruption trial of former Western Cape premier Peter Marais and his environment provincial minister David Malatsi.
Yet as the hearing entered its final stages on Tuesday in Cape Town’s Bellville Regional Court Two, his shadow lay over proceedings as surely as if he had been there in person.
Marais and Malatsi are charged with accepting R400 000 from Agusta in what the state claims was a bribe to smooth the way for a decision by Malatsi’s department on the count’s proposed Roodefontein golf estate development at Plettenberg Bay.
Agusta, playboy heir to the Agusta helicopter empire, entered into a plea bargain with the Scorpions in 2003 in terms of which he paid a R1-million fine in return for an undertaking that the state would not require his further involvement ”in any way” in the prosecution.
But as prosecutor Bruce Morrison delivered his closing argument in the trial, which has been running episodically since November 2003, magistrate Andre le Grange commented repeatedly on the fact that Agusta did not testify.
At one point Le Grange remarked that it was ”a pity” that the Count had not been called, and that it would have been to the advantage of the state case to have done so.
Morrison said the plea agreement was drawn up by the national directorate of public prosecutions, not by him, but hastened to add: ”I’m not saying it’s wrong.”
When Morrison was discussing the lack of information on what was agreed on about the donations at a particular stage, Le Grange again interjected that the state could have called Agusta.
”Unfortunately I was not in a position to do so in terms of the agreement reached,” replied Morrison.
”You made up your bed, you must lie in it,” said Le Grange.
He later raised the issue a third time, protesting that Morrison wanted the court to make inferences on whether the donations were discussed at a spaghetti dinner when in Agusta it had a witness who had been there.
Malatsi’s attorney Frank Raymond said in his closing address that Agusta must have had ”threats” made against him to get him to sign the plea agreement.
He said R1-million was ”pocket money” to the Italian.
Marais and Malatsi each face two counts of corruption.
They have both been charged in connection with an amount of R300 000 Agusta gave to the NNP via Marais, and both in connection with the R100 000 donated through Malatsi.
The state has alleged that they acted with common purpose on both counts. However, Morrison conceded on Tuesday that he had ”problems” establishing common purpose for Marais on the second count.
Morrison also dealt with a defence claim that Marais has been charged under the wrong section of the Corruption Act, with receiving a consideration for a future act, instead of a section dealing with rewards for acts already committed.
The state’s case is that Marais received the cash only after intervening in the provincial decision-making process.
Morrison said if the evidence did not support a conviction under the section with which he had been charged, there was precedent in law for him to be convicted under the other section, as the facts in both situations were exactly the same.
He argued that Marais would suffer no prejudice, as he had been represented by experienced counsel and would not have conducted his defence any differently had he been charged under the other section.
In addition to the corruption counts, Malatsi has pleaded not guilty to a charge of fraud relating to an expense claim for R18 000; a charge of fraud, alternatively theft, relating to the payment of R5 400 to a Sea Point woman; and two charges of theft relating to amounts of R13 975,63 and R18 000 from an NNP account.
Malatsi has been acquitted on a charge of corruption relating to a second amount of R100 000 from Agusta allegedly ”to fix a bus”.
The case continues on Wednesday. — Sapa