It's D-Day for Marais, Malatsi

2003-11-11 21:21

Cape Town - More than 60 witnesses are expected to be called by the prosecution in the corruption trial of politicians Peter Marais and David Malatsi, which gets under way next week.

Senior Scorpions prosecutor Bruce Morrison said on Tuesday the hearing was expected to start in earnest in the regional court in George on Monday, November 17.

He had had no indication the defence wanted a postponement.

"Everybody is positive they would like the matter to proceed and be brought to finality as soon as possible," he said.

Marais, who is leader of the New Labour Party and a former New National Party Western Cape premier, and Malatsi, his former development planning MEC for the province, are on bail of R10 000 each after their arrest and several court appearances earlier this year.

Morrison said they would both face two charges of corruption related to a total of R400 000 paid to the NNP in 2002 by the developer of Plettenberg Bay's Roodefontein golf estate, Italian count Riccardo Agusta.

Agusta, who last month concluded a plea-bargain agreement with the Scorpions to pay a R1m fine for breaching the Corruption Act, has admitted to handing over the cash.

Golf estate approved

Although he had hoped in this way to "promote" the province's approval of the R500m Roodefontein project, he was unaware this constituted bribery, he said.

Just days after the payments were made, Malatsi's department approved the golf estate in controversial circumstances.

Morrison said that, in addition to the charges shared with Marais, Malatsi faced a third charge of corruption, the details of which he was not prepared to reveal at this stage, one of fraud, one of fraud with theft as an alternative, and two counts of theft.

Morrison said 16 witnesses from the George and Plettenberg Bay area were scheduled to testify during the two weeks the hearing was scheduled to sit in George.

The remainder of the 62 people on his witness list would testify in Cape Town, where the hearing would move after the George witnesses were completed.

He said the decision to have split venues for the trial was because it was cheaper and more practical to hear the evidence where the witnesses were than bringing them to Cape Town. It also made site inspections easier.

He expected the whole trial, to be heard by regional magistrate André le Grange, would take six or seven weeks to finalise.

Asked if Agusta himself would be called as a witness, Morrison declined to comment.

Agusta's October plea bargain includes a paragraph recording that the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions "does not require (the Count's) further involvement in any way in any continuing or further prosecution or investigation concerning or arising from his relations with Marais and Malatsi".

- SAPA