Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha has made public affadavits telling his side of the story relating to the missing R500 000 donation to the South African Communist Party (SACP). Madisha and a witness say they delivered the money to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande in 2002.
Madisha says he has two witnesses who saw him deliver the donation to Nzimande.
Last week Nzimande denied ever receiving the R500 000 donation, allegedly made by businessman Charles Modise.
In a police statement, Madisha and a witness corroborate delivering the money in two refuse bags to Nzimande in a room at the Sunnyside Park Hotel in Parktown, Johannesburg.
”[Madisha] adds that he left Nzimande in the hotel room and has no more knowledge of what happened thereafter,” said the SABC.
”However, Madisha doesn’t remember the exact date. All he remembers is that it happened on a Saturday in 2002.”
Business Day reported on Thursday that Madisha and Nzimande counted the cash together.
”I left him in the room with both bags of money and what happened thereafter I don’t know,” the paper quoted Madisha’s affadavit as saying.
Madisha and the witness both say in their police statements that Madisha and Nzimande met Modise at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg to thank him.
SACP chairperson Gwede Mantashe told the SABC he hoped the evidence against Nzimande was solid and not just ”hearsay”.
”If it was in an office it should be an office with a name. If it was a hotel it should be a hotel room with a number,” Mantashe said.
”If that is the evidence that people say we have seen this money exchanging hands at this place, that is a witness.”
In just over a week, a SACP task team is expected to report back to the party what transpired over the R500 000 donation. – Sapa