Tearful Carl confesses all

2009-02-13 16:12

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - ANC spokesperson Carl Niehaus has been exposed as having committed frauds, and leaving a broad trail of bad debts and broken promises behind him.

He wept as he told the Mail and Guardian: "Most of what you've confronted me with is true. I wish it wasn't. I've made massive mistakes and I've disappointed a lot of people terribly. I've no illusions that if you publish this article it will mean the end of my career."

Niehaus first came to public notice when he spoke incautiously of blowing up the gasworks in Johannesburg. He was shopped to the security police by his flatmate, and in 1983 was sent to prison to 15 years convicted of treason. He recently revealed that he had been repeatedly raped while in jail.

Committed fraud

In 1994 he became Nelson Mandela's spokesperson and was then an MP. When he left Parliament having been chairperson of the correctional services committee he was made ambassador to The Netherlands.

At the end of his term in The Hague he found work at NICRO (formerly the South African Prisoners' Aid Association) until his relationship with Mandela helped him secure a job at audit firm Deloitte and Touche in Gauteng and in The Netherlands.

The Mail and Guardian confronted him this week with allegations that he owed hundreds of thousands of rand to politicians and influential businessmen and committed fraud while working for the Gauteng provincial government, and the paper reported on Friday that he admitted that he forged signatures while he was chief executive of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (Geda) before resigning in December 2005, and that he borrowed money over a six-year period from some of the brightest stars of the ANC and business galaxy, much of which he has not paid back.

Desperate

He admitted that he asked to be connected to Brett Kebble because he was "desperate for financial help" and had to leave his top job at Deloitte and Touche in 2003 after his financial woes became embarrassing.

He acknowledged to the M&G that he owed the Rhema Church more than R700 000 he was asked to resign from his post as chief executive and spokesperson by a full board meeting in 2004, and had to repay R24 000 rand to director general in the presidency Frank Chikane when he left his job there under a cloud in 2004.

Niehaus, appointed ANC spokesperson in November 2008, also admitted to using the Rhema Church's travel agent to book a holiday for himself and his wife in Zanzibar and to using the presidency's travel agent to book flights and a trip to Durban for his former wife. But he denied allegations by his co-workers at the time that he intended to pass off the trips as work expenses.

He disputed accounts that he left the presidency amid claims of financial impropriety and ran up implausible expense accounts at Deloitte.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)