Wining and dining a 'no-no'

2003-11-24 18:29

George - It would be out of line for an official to accept anything more than a cooldrink and a sandwich from a developer during a long, hot site visit, the Roodefontein corruption trial in George heard on Monday.

"Anything over and above that wouldn't be considered acceptable," said Dr Steve du Toit, the Western Cape environment and planning department case officer who dealt with the application for the R500m golf estate.

The trial heard last week that former provincial premier Peter Marais and then-environment MEC David Malatsi, were taken to lunch at a luxury Plettenberg Bay hotel after they paid a site visit to Roodefontein in April last year.

The developer, multi-millionaire Italian Count Riccardo Agusta, paid the bill for the meal, and soon afterwards handed over R400 000 in donations to the New National Party, which Marais then led in the province.

The development was approved within days of the money changing hands.

Under questioning by prosecutor Bruce Morrison, Du Toit said it would not be in order for an official to accept a lavish meal and be wined and dined.

"If a developer offered to pay R400 000 into your favourite charity, would that be acceptable?" asked Morrison.

"No," replied Du Toit.

Earlier, he was cross-examined at length by Malatsi's advocate, Pete Mihalik, on how he came to draft a positive record of decision (ROD) - a document approving the project - on the instructions of a superior, despite his own belief that it should be rejected.

The court has already heard that after a meeting with the Roodefontein developers in Marais' office on April 17 last year, at which they complained about delays in processing their application, Malatsi undertook to have a decision out of his department within days.

Immediately after the meeting, Ingrid Coetzee, the departmental official in Cape Town with the delegated authority to actually issue a ROD, asked Du Toit, who was based in the department's George office, to draft a positive decision.

'I hope not'

Asked on Monday by Mihalik whether he would at any stage do something that he thought was irregular, inappropriate or would cause serious environmental problems, Du Toit said he hoped not.

Asked whether he would have drafted a positive ROD if he felt the development would create an ecological disaster, he said: "If I felt it would have long term significant detrimental effects on the environment I would certain have challenged Ingrid Coetzee's directive to [draft] a ROD, a positive ROD."

He believed there was not enough information on the proposal to make a sound decision, and believed Coetzee was "perfectly aware" of his sentiments.

"She asked for a positive ROD to see what it would look like, so I didn't feel it was clear-cut that it was going to be authorised," he said.

There was something in their conversation which led him to accept she was not going to simply take the positive ROD, sign it and send it off.

Coetzee in fact then asked him for a draft of a negative ROD as well.

Evidence has been that Coetzee in fact ultimately declined to issue an ROD of any sort, telling her department head she did not have enough information to make a decision.

Malatsi relieved her of her delegated authority on April 19, and soon afterwards another department official approved the project, albeit with conditions.

- SAPA