These scams must stop - DA

2003-05-09 15:27

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance on Friday welcomed the arrest of Jack Milne, former head of the PSC Guaranteed Growth Fund (PSCGG), but argued that more had to be done to rid South Africa of such corporate scandals.

DA finance spokesperson Raenette Taljaard said: "South Africans are rightly outraged when the greed and misdeeds of others rob them of their life savings and leave them poorer.

"Whether it is Miracle 2000 or PSCGG, the devastating impact of collapses of pyramid schemes or unsound corporate structures, it is those who choose to trust and invest that bear the brunt of the fall-out," she said.

Milne was released on R50 000 bail on Thursday. He is charged with defrauding thousands of investors of about R250m in total, and with contravening the Companies Act.

PSCGG executive director Susan Hillary Bennett and Gary Porritt, chief executive of financial services firm Tigon, were released on a warning.

'Time for a shake-up'

Porritt and Bennett face separate charges of tax evasion and fraud.

Taljaard said the time had come for South Africa's corporate landscape to face a similar shake-up to the reforms undertaken in Europe and the United States in the wake of the Enron debacle.

"While the King II report on corporate governance, new listing requirements on the JSE (Securities Exchange) and a raft of reforms has already moved South Africa into the realm of tighter corporate governance strictures, the DA believes more ought to be done.

"There are too many corporate scandals that blight the corporate landscape and business papers every day," she said.

- SAPA