Sharon/Kern link: Detectives head for SA
2003-02-16 19:13
Cape Town - A team of Israeli detectives are scheduled to arrive in South Africa on Monday to question a Cape Town-based British businessman who made a large loan to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, police and justice officials said.
Reports of the R12.6m loan given by Cyril Kern to Sharon's sons Gilad and Omri unleashed a major political controversy on the eve of last month's general election in Israel.
The money was reportedly to serve as collateral for another loan that the Sharon brothers took out to pay back a company from which the prime minister received irregular contributions during his campaign for the leadership of the Likud party in 1999.
"We are assisting the Israeli attorney general's office in constituting an investigation. A Cape Town magistrate has already been appointed to head the inquiry," justice ministry spokesperson Paul Setsetse said.
The inquiry would also probe whether Kern had violated South African law or foreign exchange regulations when making the loan.
Loan repaid
Kern is on record as saying he made Sharon the loan as a "personal gift" to help the veteran politician's struggling Negev desert farm.
He added that the loan had been repaid in full and "with interest."
In an interview published in the Sunday Times in January, Kern said he gave the Sharon family the money after he spoke with Gilad Sharon, who runs the family farm.
"In business, every year is not Christmas. They were in trouble and I offered to help," Kern was quoted as saying.
"We have always been there for each other. Not just around money issues - also emotional ones," he said.
In an extensive interview with the newspaper he described how he and Sharon became close friends during the 1948 War of Independence that established the Jewish state.
Kern, a British subject, was one of many foreign volunteers who rallied to Israel's colours at the time.
He was allocated to a unit commanded by Sharon.
Kern afterwards made his money in the British discount clothing industry.
The millionaire moved to South Africa six years ago.
He is godfather to Sharon's sons and Sharon is the godfather of Kern's son Joshua, 30, the newspaper reported.
The Kern family has made frequent visits to Sharon's farm.
- SAPA