Witness: Marais 'intervened'

2003-11-18 14:39

George - Former Western Cape premier Peter Marais intervened directly to ensure provincial environment officials made a decision on the Roodefontein golf estate development, the regional court in George heard on Tuesday.

Marais and then-environment and development MEC David Malatsi are accused of taking a R400 000 bribe from Roodefontein developer Count Riccardo Agusta to smooth the way for approval of the project.

Independent environment consultant Cathy Avierinos, who began working on the project at the end of 2001, told the court that in April 2002, she was told to attend an on-site meeting at which Augusta, Marais and Malatsi and their entourage of bodyguards were present.

The politicians were given a brief presentation on the planned R500m development, in the Piesang River valley at Plettenberg Bay, and went on a helicopter flip over the area before going to lunch at a local hotel.

Some weeks later the project manager, Robert Browning, called her to a meeting at Marais' office in Cape Town.

Also there on the day were Malatsi, the head of his department Theo Tolmay, and the department's director for environmental management, Ingrid Coetzee, who had Malatsi's delegated authority to issue the department's formal record of decision - approval or rejection - on the application for the development.

Browning addressed the meeting on the problems the developers were facing, and said Agusta was getting frustrated at the delays in getting a decision from province.

"It was quite an emotional plea if you could call it that," she said.

?Butterflies and fynbos?

Coetzee then spoke on aspects of the development plan she believed were still outstanding, but did not mention, said Avierinos, that the department's George office had mislaid the original Roodefontein application.

After this general discussion Marais asked Malatsi to be "accountable" for his department, and the MEC undertook to have a decision out of the department by that Friday, she said.

At one stage Marais said he had been expecting to hear "big issues about fynbos and butterflies", and he was not hearing that, so the department should make a decision.

"It was almost like a mini-trial, except the premier was sitting in that position," said Avierinos, indicating magistrate Andre le Grange.

"I didn't get the impression anyone was particularly happy to be there."

Marais' attitude had been "almost reprimanding", she said.

"The atmosphere was pretty tense."

She said that after that meeting, Coetzee's delegated powers were removed, and the development was approved by a different official, with conditions, some of which the developers felt were too onerous or should not have had time frames attached to them.

The developers appealed, the conditions were removed, and construction of the golf driving range on the estate was begun.

The hearing continues.

- SAPA