Trustees of the late Brett Kebble’s estate had by Monday not been formally notified that the Western Cape’s African National Congress (ANC) branch would keep the mining magnate’s donations.
”We haven’t been advised as such [that the party refuses to repay the money],” said Stellenbosch-based attorney Hans Klopper, MD of Independent Corporate Recovery Advisors. ”The attorneys representing the trustees and the ANC are talking to each other.”
If the party refused to pay back the millions Kebble had given it, the trustees would turn to the Insolvency Act, said Klopper. ”The Insolvency Act provides for certain procedures to be followed, and we will deal with that when we formally hear [from the ANC].”
Klopper said the trustees are asking for the money to be returned because, according to insolvency law, it is not permissible to make donations while being in debt. ”It’s called a ‘disposition without value’ because his [Kebble’s] estate got no monetary value for it.”
The ANC’s Western Cape provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha, was adamant the party would keep the money. ”The ANC is not going to be giving back the money. We are of the opinion that a donation is a donation. We don’t think we owe anybody.”
Klopper confirmed that the ANC had been paid in the region of R24-million, as reported by the Sunday Times.
According to the newspaper’s report, the trustees are demanding:
- R2,4-million from the ANC in the Western Cape;
- R750 000 from the ANC in the Eastern Cape;
- R6-million from the ANC Youth League;
- R14-million from Lunga Ncwana, a prominent member of the youth league; and
- R860 000 from Songezo Mjongile, a member of the league’s national executive committee.
Skwatsha, however, said that the sum in question is ”less than R1-million” and that it was used to pay the party’s utility bills.
”The ANC keeps no money. That … donation was given to us when our electricity and telephones were cut; we used that to pay the bills. We are happy that he helped us.”
According to the Sunday Times, the youth league’s Ncwana had told the trustees he used part half of the R14-million to buy two properties in Cape Town, one for himself at Constantia Kloof, for R4,7-million, and the other for his mother in Newlands, for R1,2-million.
Democratic Alliance spokesperson James Selfe said on Sunday his party had been approached by the trustees and had repaid R250 000 that it had received.
”We were satisfied that the money had been received improperly and we have repaid the money in full and final settlement to the trustees,” he said. — Sapa