Sam Buthelezi is not your average detainee. “It is my constitutional right to have legal representation here,” he said firmly this week, without losing his cool. “I am quite willing to co-operate. I am quite willing to answer questions. But it would be suicidal to answer you without legal representation. I am facing a criminal matter.”
The eloquent owner of the Trilinear asset management group appeared out of place at the high-security Pollsmoor Prison in Tokai, in the southern suburbs of Cape Town, where he is awaiting trial on charges of embezzling money from clothing workers’ pension funds. Buthelezi, who is key to tracing the movements of R100-million in provident fund money was expected to spill the beans this week. It was the evidence everyone following the money trail had been waiting to hear.
But tensions rose when the mild-mannered Buthelezi refused to disclose even his full name to the legal team of the Canyon Springs Investment 12 insolvency inquiry, which went to Pollsmoor on Wednesday to hear his evidence.
The relocation of the inquiry was not a simple affair. Although the inquiry is a closed procedure, some media houses obtained court orders allowing them to attend it because it was of great public interest. It took lengthy overnight negotiations with the department of correctional services before the Mail & Guardian received security clearance and the vehicle spikes were dropped to give the press access.
It had been hoped that Buthelezi would explain why money from the pension funds was lent, on the basis of a verbal agreement to Canyon Springs, which is co-owned by former deputy minister of economic development Enoch Godongwana and his wife, Thandiwe.
But it was not to be. When Buthelezi arrived under escort at the conference room in Pollsmoor, dressed in a striped blue T-shirt, jeans and smart shoes, he stood firm in his resistance.
“I don’t have a legal representative here. I am not sure if it is appropriate for me to answer questions,” he told the frustrated legal team. It was pointed out to Buthelezi that his newly appointed lawyer had been contacted to inform him about the proceedings taking place, but he had said he was busy.
Gavin Woodland SC, who is representing the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union, told Buthelezi that he appeared to be “subverting” the process again, as he had failed to appear at the inquiry when he was subpoenaed last year.
“But I maintain that the court order could not have taken into account I would be in jail,” said Buthelezi. “I don’t have any office files with me. The information you are asking for can only be obtained outside. How practical is that court order?”
Buthelezi said the system had been against him from the start. “It is nothing new for this inquiry to be prejudicing my rights. My suggestion is that, because I am already facing charges in the Canyon Springs matter, the matter is sub judice.”
The once highly rated financial whizz, who ran a black economic empowerment company that was a forerunner in the asset management field, left for his cell under heavy escort — and under threat of a further jail sentence for contempt of court. When he was gone, there was an air of defeat in the room.