Malatsi, Marais probe begins

2003-03-06 14:19

Cape Town - The secretary to former environment and development planning MEC David Malatsi is likely to be asked to testify as a witness for Peter Marais at his New National Party disciplinary hearing.

The secretary, Mariaan Meyer, was one of the first people the Scorpions interviewed after allegations of corruption relating to the controversial Roodefontein golf-estate development surfaced.

Meyer and Malatsi were the sole signatories to the NNP's Khayelithsa bank account - into which R100 000 was alleged deposited by Italian aviation billionaire Count Ricardo Agusta.

The Scorpions, who are conducting a criminal investigation into Malatsi and Marais, said they had agreed to allow Meyer to take part in the disciplinary hearing.

The Scorpions Sipho Ngwema said: "We have given the defence the go-ahead to speak to her, but they can have no access to documents and affidivits she provided to us."

The NNP's hearing began on Thursday morning before a four-member panel in Cape Town.

The panel consisted of senior NNP members Sheila Camerer, Carl Greyling, Johan Durandt and chair Piet Mathee.

Timing 'bad' from election viewpoint

Just after midday on Thursday, the NNP's Alie van Jaarsveld said that parties mutually agreed to a final postponement being granted. The committee will meet on March 17 and 18.

NNP election director Dirk Bakker said both Malatsi and Marais were applying for a remand for different reasons.

"Malatsi's side have a new legal team, his third in a month".

Bakker said the timing of the disciplinary hearing was "bad" from an election point of view, but the NNP was not too worried about it.

"We don't think that clean government can ever be bad timing... in the minds of our opposition they think it's good timing - but it's good timing for us because our campaign message will be clean government."

He said while the NNP obviously wanted finality in the disciplinary procedure, it did not have a fixed time-frame in which to conclude the hearing.

"It must be a fair and reasonable process in which the other side is heard," he said, adding "people can't be allowed to frustrate the process".

Earlier in the day, a relaxed-looking David Malatsi again protested his innocence when he arrived with a new legal team for the hearing.

Malatsi faces charges of misconduct stemming from the furore over alleged kickbacks from his approval of the Roodefontein development at Plettenberg Bay.

"I'm innocent till proven guilty, and I am not guilty," he told journalists outside the venue of the hearing in Keerom Street, Cape Town.

His new legal team includes advocate Pete Mihalik, who last year represented fraud suspect Jürgen Harksen, now on trial in Germany, and attorney Richard Dixon.

Former provincial premier Peter Marais also faces the disciplinary charges, but his advocate, Hugo Rossouw, said his client would not attend the hearing in person.

A former confidant of Marais and one-time legal adviser to the city of Cape Town, Ben Kieser, said he was there "to assist" Rossouw.

NNP federal council spokesperson Alie van Jaarsveld said papers served on Marais and Malatsi said they should attend personally, but that it was obviously Marais's "prerogative not to be here if he thinks his legal team can handle it".

Alleged donations to the NNP

Both Malatsi and Marais have been charged with corruption after a probe by the Scorpions unit, and are on bail of R10 000 each.

They are alleged to have received kickbacks in the form of donations to the NNP totalling R400 000 from the developers of Roodefontein.

The Cape High Court has halted all further development there.

The Cape Times reported on Thursday that an official in Malatsi's department had given the Scorpions affidavits claiming the NNP had used the department for "explicit fund-raising purposes".

The official, whom the newspaper did not name, said the NNP "specifically reserved this particular portfolio for itself as a fund-raising avenue".

"It has become patently clear, not only to me, but to many officials, that the entire planning process is being manipulated for party political gain."

- SAPA