South African Communist Party (SACP) chairperson Gwede Mantashe has reacted to a statement made on Wednesday by Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha that he had handed over a R500 000 donation to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.
”I wish to emphasise that, yes, I received R500 000 and handed same to the general secretary of the SACP, comrade Blade Nzimande,” Madisha told a media briefing in Johannesburg.
”I am willing to go to the courts … and actually prove that indeed this did happen. I’m willing to stand in front of the courts and the Communist Party, my own organisation, and prove that, yes indeed, this did happen,” he said.
On Sunday, Nzimande denied ever receiving the R500 000 donation, which was allegedly made by businessman Charles Modise in 2002.
”I wish to place it on record that I have never received the alleged R500 000 from any person, as is alleged. As the SACP has said, this is part of a concerted smear campaign primarily directed at discrediting the image and reputation of the SACP and tarnishing my image and integrity,” he said in a statement.
Mantashe said on Wednesday evening: ”We have two contradicting statements now. We’re giving the task team time to go through the evidence and produce a report.” Madisha had met earlier on Monday with the task team set up by the SACP to investigate the disappearance of the money.
‘Hypocrisy’
Mantashe dismissed Madisha’s claims that the party had ”already tried, judged and sentenced me in the court of public opinion” before he had given his side of the story.
Madisha had ”sat on the information” for more than five years and did not disclose to the party that it had not received intended funds, he said. ”He didn’t come to the structures in his own party, but went public — I think that is bordering on hypocrisy.”
Attempts had been made to talk to Madisha after media reports on the missing donation, but he had only been available on Wednesday, Mantashe said.
Madisha said he had not instituted any charges with police and at no stage accused any person of wrongdoing. ”I provided a statement setting out the relevant sequence of events … confirming the receipt of the donation and the handing over of same.”
He also said he did not know that the money had not reached party coffers until after the case was opened. ”I handed the money to the general secretary. That he had not handed it over to the party purse, I didn’t know.”
Earlier this month, Madisha had confirmed receiving the funds and was quoted as saying: ”I took it to the person to whom I was supposed to deliver it to.” Two Sunday newspapers reported at the time that Nzimande was being investigated for theft and fraud in connection with the missing funds.