Yasir Arafat, who died this morning in Paris, was the wily and enigmatic father of Palestinian nationalism who for almost 40 years symbolized his people's longing for a distinct political identity and independent state. He was 75.
No other individual so embodied the Palestinians' plight: their dispersal, their statelessness, their hunger for a return to a homeland lost to Israel. Mr. Arafat was once seen as a romantic hero and praised as a statesman, but his luster and reputation faded over time. A brilliant navigator of political currents in opposition, once in power he proved more tactician than strategist, and a leader who rejected crucial opportunities to achieve his declared goal.
At the end of his life, Mr. Arafat governed Palestinians from an almost three-year confinement by Israel to his Ramallah headquarters. While many Palestinians continued to revere him, others came to see him as undemocratic and his administration as corrupt, as they faced growing poverty, lawlessness and despair over prospects for statehood.
A co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994 for his agreement to work toward peaceful coexistence with Israel, Mr. Arafat began his long political career with high-profile acts of anti-Israel terrorism.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Monday, November 8, 2004
Count Agusta link probed in Palazzolo hearing
An Italian prosecutor on Monday sought to probe the link between alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo and Count Riccardo Agusta, who achieved notoriety in the Roodefontein saga.
The prosecutor, Gaetano Paci, was cross-examining former police officer Gert Nel in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court, which is hearing evidence for Palazzolo's trial in absentia in Italy.
Nel told the court he was one of the police officers who arrested Palazzolo in the Eastern Cape in 1988, which resulted in Palazzolo returning to Switzerland to complete a jail term for playing banker in a massive drug deal.
Last year, a civil engineer told the George Regional Court, hearing corruption charges against former Western Cape politicians Peter Marais and David Malatsi, that Palazzolo played a key role in Agusta's controversial Roodefontein golf-estate development.
The engineer, Ray Durden, testified that Palazzolo asked him to bring together a professional team to drive the project, and gave him instructions on an earlier, abandoned plan for a retirement complex on the farm.
Palazzolo had said he was acting as an adviser for Agusta.
Agusta last year paid a R1-million fine for his part in the Roodefontein corruption saga.
The prosecutor, Gaetano Paci, was cross-examining former police officer Gert Nel in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court, which is hearing evidence for Palazzolo's trial in absentia in Italy.
Nel told the court he was one of the police officers who arrested Palazzolo in the Eastern Cape in 1988, which resulted in Palazzolo returning to Switzerland to complete a jail term for playing banker in a massive drug deal.
Last year, a civil engineer told the George Regional Court, hearing corruption charges against former Western Cape politicians Peter Marais and David Malatsi, that Palazzolo played a key role in Agusta's controversial Roodefontein golf-estate development.
The engineer, Ray Durden, testified that Palazzolo asked him to bring together a professional team to drive the project, and gave him instructions on an earlier, abandoned plan for a retirement complex on the farm.
Palazzolo had said he was acting as an adviser for Agusta.
Agusta last year paid a R1-million fine for his part in the Roodefontein corruption saga.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Bank with close ties to Bush administration engulfed in scandal
The Justice Department announced on Friday that it is launching a criminal investigation into Riggs Bank. In recent months, the Washington-based bank has become engulfed in a scandal related to charges of money-laundering, corruption and terrorist financing. Riggs, which touts itself as “the most important bank in the most important city in the world,” has been known for decades as the bank of the Washington elite, including politicians, foreign ambassadors and the wealthy. It has held presidential accounts stretching back to the time of the Civil War, and is a prominent fixture in the political and social establishment of the nation’s capital.
Or rather, it was a prominent fixture. In July, PNL Financial Services agreed to buy Riggs for $779 million. The sale will become final by early next year. The bank’s prominent embassy and international operations will be shut down in an attempt to bury a scandal that has the potential of becoming much larger. That an institution like Riggs could so quickly disintegrate is an indication of the extent of the corruption that has overtaken American finance and government. There are three separate activities for which Riggs has come under investigation: (1) its relationship with the Saudi royal family and the potential financing of two of the September 11 hijackers through an account owned by the wife of the Saudi ambassador; (2) its relationship with the corrupt and dictatorial regime of the oil-rich West African country of Equatorial Guinea; and (3) its banking business with the former military dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet.
The public revelations concerning the bank’s relationship with Saudi Arabia came mainly through the publication of a Newsweek article on December 2, 2002 (“The Saudi Money Trail”). The news magazine reported that in January 2000, two of the hijackers who were on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon—Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar—received monetary aid and other assistance from Omar al-Bayoumi.
Alhazmi and Almihdhar are at the center of suspicions of US government complicity in the 9/11 attacks—and for good reason. The CIA had identified the two as early as January 2000 as Al Qaeda operatives, and the Washington Post reported in June 2002 that the FBI also knew of the two from January of 2000. Yet they were allowed to enter the US and live openly in San Diego for 18 months prior to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Newsweek reported in September 2002 that the roommate of Alhazmi and Almihdhar in San Diego was an FBI informant!
According to the December 2002 Newsweek article on Riggs Bank, al-Bayoumi “apparently did work for Dallah Avco, an aviation-services company with extensive contracts with the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation, headed by Prince Sultan, the father of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar. According to informed sources, some federal investigators suspect that al-Bayoumi could have been an advance man for the 9/11 hijackers, sent by Al Qaeda to assist the plot that ultimately claimed 3,000 lives.”
Al-Bayoumi may have been receiving assistance in his activities from sections of the Saudi royal family. The Newsweek article states: “About two months after al-Bayoumi began aiding Alhazmi and Almihdhar, Newsweek has learned, al-Bayoumi’s wife began receiving regular stipends, often monthly and usually around $2,000 and totaling tens of thousands of dollars. The money came in the form of cashier’s checks, purchased from Washington’s Riggs Bank by Princess Haifa bin Faisal, the daughter of the late King Faisal and wife of Prince Bandar, the Saudi envoy who is a prominent Washington figure and personal friend of the Bush family. The checks were sent to a woman named Majeda Ibrahin Dweikat, who in turn signed over many of them to al-Bayoumi’s wife...”
Dweikat’s husband, Osama Basnan, is reported to be a sympathizer of Al Qaeda and is known to have had friendly relations with the two hijackers, Alhazmi and Almihdhar.
Al-Bayoumi apparently came under suspicion shortly after the attacks of September 11. He was picked up by British intelligence, which found evidence that he had made two phone calls to diplomats at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. However, he was released and is reported to be in Saudi Arabia.
Further, according to Newsweek: “Osama Basnan showed up in Houston last April [2001] while Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah came to town with a vast entourage en route to President George W. Bush’s ranch. According to informed sources, Basnan met with a high Saudi prince who has responsibilities for intelligence matters and is known to bring suitcases full of cash into the United States.”
There are suspicions that Basnan may have been a member of Saudi intelligence, suggesting that Saudi intelligence was closely monitoring, if not aiding, the activity of the September 11 hijackers through its accounts at Riggs.
Newsweek noted that the FBI, as of December 2002, still had an investigation open into the transactions. In July 2003, the FBI accused Riggs Bank of failing to abide by anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations.
Prior to and after the attacks of September 11, it was not unusual for Saudi clients to transfers of millions of dollars in and out of the bank with no questions asked. This was in violation of AML regulations, which require the reporting of all transaction involving such large sums of money.
The bank was eventually fined $25 million in May 2004 for violating these regulations. However, the FBI has issued a statement saying it found no evidence of terrorist financing. The Bush administration has refused to release the intelligence behind the investigation, citing “national security concerns.”
Even after the FBI’s accusations in July 2003, the bank continued to allow massive cash transfers by the Saudi ambassador. Under pressure, the bank announced this past March that it was closing all Saudi accounts.
On July 14, 2004, the Minority Staff of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, at the request of Democrat Carl Levin, the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, issued a report that dealt mainly with the bank’s accounts for Equatorial Guinea and Augusto Pinochet.
The report found that “the evidence reviewed by the Subcommittee staff establishes that, since at least 1997, Riggs has disregarded its anti-money laundering (AML) obligations, maintained a dysfunctional AML program despite frequent warnings from OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] regulators, and allowed or, at times, actively facilitated suspicious financial activity.” The OCC, a branch of the Treasury Department, is responsible for regulating nationally chartered banks.
Equatorial Guinea was Riggs’ largest client. It held over 60 accounts at the bank, with varied holdings of $300-700 million. Its ruler, Teodoro Obian Nguema Mbasogo, came to power in a military coup in 1979 and is infamous for his corruption and brutality. Relations with the United States became strained in the mid-1990s, when the Clinton administration broke off diplomatic ties. However, these were restored by the Bush administration in 2003. The country holds interest for the United States because of its large oil reserves.
Riggs appears to have held both Equatorial Guinea government treasury accounts and the personal accounts of Obiang, his family members, and ministers in his government.
According to the subcommittee report, Riggs “serviced the EG [Equatorial Guinean] accounts with little or no attention to the bank’s anti-money laundering obligations...” For example, “Riggs opened multiple personal accounts for the President of Equatorial Guinea, his wife, and other relatives; helped establish shell offshore corporations for the EG President and his sons; and over a three-year period, from 2000 to 2002, facilitated nearly $13 million in cash deposits into Riggs accounts controlled by the EG President and his wife.”
Riggs also opened an account that received large sums of money from oil companies that did business with Equatorial Guinea, including Exxon Mobil, Amerada Hess, Marathon Oil and ChevronTexaco. Riggs allowed the wire transfer of over $35 million from the account to two unknown companies. “The Subcommittee has reason to believe that at least one of these recipient companies is controlled in whole or in part by the EG President.”
Riggs appears to have acted as a conduit for large-scale bribes or other corrupt machinations between the giant oil corporations and the dictator of a country with which they were eager to do business. The report also noted that these oil companies made a number of large payments (sometimes valued at over $1 million) to individual officials or family members for a variety of services.
The manager of Riggs’ accounts for Equatorial Guinea was Simon P. Kareri, who was eventually fired by the bank in January 2004. According to a bank employee, on more than one occasion Kareri visited the Equatorial Guinean embassy and returned with a suitcase full of $3 million in cash, which was deposited in the bank with no reports to financial regulators.
According to the subcommittee report, “The bank leadership permitted [Kareri] ...to become closely involved with EG officials and business activities, including advising the EG government on financial matters and becoming the sole signatory on an EG account holding substantial funds. The bank exercised such lax oversight of the account manager’s activities that, among other misconduct, the account manager was able to wire transfer more than $1 million from the EG oil account at Riggs to another bank for an account opened in the name of Jadini Holdings, an offshore corporation controlled by the account manager’s wife.”
In addition to its dealings with the Saudi royal family and Equatorial Guinea’s dictator, Riggs had a close relationship with the former dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet held numerous active accounts at Riggs between 1994 and 2002, even while he was under house arrest in Britain and his assets were supposedly frozen.
According to the subcommittee report, “The aggregate deposits in the Pinochet accounts at Riggs ranged from $4 to $8 million at a time.... Riggs account managers took actions consistent with helping Mr. Pinochet to evade legal proceedings seeking to discover and attach his bank accounts.... Riggs opened multiple accounts and accepted millions of dollars in deposits from Mr. Pinochet with no serious inquiry into questions regarding the source of his wealth; helped him set up offshore shell corporations and open accounts in the names of those corporations to disguise his control of the accounts; altered the names of his personal accounts to disguise their ownership; transferred $1.6 million from London to the United States while Mr. Pinochet was in detention and the subject of a court order to attach his bank accounts; conducted transactions through Riggs’ own accounts to hide Mr. Pinochet’s involvement in some cash transactions; and delivered over $1.9 million in cashiers checks to Mr. Pinochet in Chile to enable him to obtain substantial cash payments from banks in that country.”
The scope of the corruption, money-laundering and other suspicious activities is indeed astonishing. While it was engaged in these activities, the bank operated under the not-so-watchful eye of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. In spite of clear indications of regulatory violations at least as early as 1997, the OCC took no actions.
Particularly closely involved with the OCC’s investigation into the Pinochet accounts was the comptroller’s examiner-in-charge, R. Ashley Lee, who worked at the OCC from 1998 to October 2002. According to the subcommittee report, “In 2001, [Lee]...advised more senior OCC personnel against taking a formal enforcement action against Riggs, because the bank had promised to correct identified AML deficiencies. In 2002, he ordered examiners not to include a memorandum or work papers on the Pinochet examination to the OCC’s electronic database.”
Lee went to work for Riggs two weeks later, quickly becoming an executive vice president and the chief risk officer. The subcommittee report states: “During his next 18-months at the bank, he attended a number of meetings with OCC personnel related to Riggs’ AML problems,” despite regulations prohibiting former OCC employees from attending meetings on OCC-related maters.
The revelations of the activities at Riggs Bank demonstrate how commonplace and extensive criminal activity has become within the American financial and political establishment. Not coincidentally, the bank’s activity has a great deal in common with certain features prominent in the Bush administration: the heavy influence of oil interests, the close ties with the Saudi ruling elite, the funding and support given to dictators and former dictators, including General Pinochet.
The relationship of Riggs to the Bush administration is more than tangential. Riggs owns a money management firm, J. Bush & Co., operated by Jonathan Bush, the brother of George H.W. Bush and the current president’s uncle.
Jonathan Bush played a very important role in helping find investors for the various failed oil businesses that George W. Bush ran before he began his career in politics. Jonathan Bush also helped raise money for George H.W. Bush and is a former chair of the New York Republican State Finance Committee. In 2000, he was briefly named president and CEO of Riggs Investment Management Company (RIMCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Riggs Bank.
While Jonathan Bush appears not to have been directly involved in the Saudi, Pinochet or Equatorial Guinean accounts, his position at Riggs is an indication of the close ties between the bank and the Bush family.
Moreover, Riggs is owned by the Allbritton family, a Texas family with close ties to the Republican establishment. Joe Allbritton, the former head of Riggs who bought the bank in the mid-1970s, is a friend of the Bush family. His son, Robert Allbritton, is the current chairman and CEO.
The Allbritton family is known among the Washington elite for the party it traditionally holds after the annual Alfalfa Club dinner, hosted to mark the birthday of Robert E. Lee, the southern general in the Civil War. The New York Times (“A Washington Bank, A Global Mess,” April 11, 2004) notes, “The Alfalfa roster includes presidents, politicians, diplomats and business impresarios, all bound together by being either formidably influential or fabulously rich. Attendees have included luminaries like Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States; Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America; and others with surnames like Greenspan, Kissinger and Rehnquist. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made their first joint public appearance after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the Alfalfa gathering in 2002.”
Valenti, who, like Allbritton and Bush, is a former Texas businessman, is also on the board of directors of Riggs Bank.
A television station also owned by Allbritton was in the news earlier this year after it refused to air an ad critical of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq.
Perhaps even more than the Enron scandal, the Riggs scandal is a deeply political scandal. No doubt, much of what went on at Riggs remains to be uncovered. With the announced sale of Riggs to PNL, which will be completed by early next year, the owners of the bank are clearly attempting to contain the scandal’s fallout.
Source: World Socialist Web Site
Or rather, it was a prominent fixture. In July, PNL Financial Services agreed to buy Riggs for $779 million. The sale will become final by early next year. The bank’s prominent embassy and international operations will be shut down in an attempt to bury a scandal that has the potential of becoming much larger. That an institution like Riggs could so quickly disintegrate is an indication of the extent of the corruption that has overtaken American finance and government. There are three separate activities for which Riggs has come under investigation: (1) its relationship with the Saudi royal family and the potential financing of two of the September 11 hijackers through an account owned by the wife of the Saudi ambassador; (2) its relationship with the corrupt and dictatorial regime of the oil-rich West African country of Equatorial Guinea; and (3) its banking business with the former military dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet.
The public revelations concerning the bank’s relationship with Saudi Arabia came mainly through the publication of a Newsweek article on December 2, 2002 (“The Saudi Money Trail”). The news magazine reported that in January 2000, two of the hijackers who were on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon—Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar—received monetary aid and other assistance from Omar al-Bayoumi.
Alhazmi and Almihdhar are at the center of suspicions of US government complicity in the 9/11 attacks—and for good reason. The CIA had identified the two as early as January 2000 as Al Qaeda operatives, and the Washington Post reported in June 2002 that the FBI also knew of the two from January of 2000. Yet they were allowed to enter the US and live openly in San Diego for 18 months prior to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Newsweek reported in September 2002 that the roommate of Alhazmi and Almihdhar in San Diego was an FBI informant!
According to the December 2002 Newsweek article on Riggs Bank, al-Bayoumi “apparently did work for Dallah Avco, an aviation-services company with extensive contracts with the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation, headed by Prince Sultan, the father of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar. According to informed sources, some federal investigators suspect that al-Bayoumi could have been an advance man for the 9/11 hijackers, sent by Al Qaeda to assist the plot that ultimately claimed 3,000 lives.”
Al-Bayoumi may have been receiving assistance in his activities from sections of the Saudi royal family. The Newsweek article states: “About two months after al-Bayoumi began aiding Alhazmi and Almihdhar, Newsweek has learned, al-Bayoumi’s wife began receiving regular stipends, often monthly and usually around $2,000 and totaling tens of thousands of dollars. The money came in the form of cashier’s checks, purchased from Washington’s Riggs Bank by Princess Haifa bin Faisal, the daughter of the late King Faisal and wife of Prince Bandar, the Saudi envoy who is a prominent Washington figure and personal friend of the Bush family. The checks were sent to a woman named Majeda Ibrahin Dweikat, who in turn signed over many of them to al-Bayoumi’s wife...”
Dweikat’s husband, Osama Basnan, is reported to be a sympathizer of Al Qaeda and is known to have had friendly relations with the two hijackers, Alhazmi and Almihdhar.
Al-Bayoumi apparently came under suspicion shortly after the attacks of September 11. He was picked up by British intelligence, which found evidence that he had made two phone calls to diplomats at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. However, he was released and is reported to be in Saudi Arabia.
Further, according to Newsweek: “Osama Basnan showed up in Houston last April [2001] while Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah came to town with a vast entourage en route to President George W. Bush’s ranch. According to informed sources, Basnan met with a high Saudi prince who has responsibilities for intelligence matters and is known to bring suitcases full of cash into the United States.”
There are suspicions that Basnan may have been a member of Saudi intelligence, suggesting that Saudi intelligence was closely monitoring, if not aiding, the activity of the September 11 hijackers through its accounts at Riggs.
Newsweek noted that the FBI, as of December 2002, still had an investigation open into the transactions. In July 2003, the FBI accused Riggs Bank of failing to abide by anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations.
Prior to and after the attacks of September 11, it was not unusual for Saudi clients to transfers of millions of dollars in and out of the bank with no questions asked. This was in violation of AML regulations, which require the reporting of all transaction involving such large sums of money.
The bank was eventually fined $25 million in May 2004 for violating these regulations. However, the FBI has issued a statement saying it found no evidence of terrorist financing. The Bush administration has refused to release the intelligence behind the investigation, citing “national security concerns.”
Even after the FBI’s accusations in July 2003, the bank continued to allow massive cash transfers by the Saudi ambassador. Under pressure, the bank announced this past March that it was closing all Saudi accounts.
On July 14, 2004, the Minority Staff of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, at the request of Democrat Carl Levin, the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, issued a report that dealt mainly with the bank’s accounts for Equatorial Guinea and Augusto Pinochet.
The report found that “the evidence reviewed by the Subcommittee staff establishes that, since at least 1997, Riggs has disregarded its anti-money laundering (AML) obligations, maintained a dysfunctional AML program despite frequent warnings from OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] regulators, and allowed or, at times, actively facilitated suspicious financial activity.” The OCC, a branch of the Treasury Department, is responsible for regulating nationally chartered banks.
Equatorial Guinea was Riggs’ largest client. It held over 60 accounts at the bank, with varied holdings of $300-700 million. Its ruler, Teodoro Obian Nguema Mbasogo, came to power in a military coup in 1979 and is infamous for his corruption and brutality. Relations with the United States became strained in the mid-1990s, when the Clinton administration broke off diplomatic ties. However, these were restored by the Bush administration in 2003. The country holds interest for the United States because of its large oil reserves.
Riggs appears to have held both Equatorial Guinea government treasury accounts and the personal accounts of Obiang, his family members, and ministers in his government.
According to the subcommittee report, Riggs “serviced the EG [Equatorial Guinean] accounts with little or no attention to the bank’s anti-money laundering obligations...” For example, “Riggs opened multiple personal accounts for the President of Equatorial Guinea, his wife, and other relatives; helped establish shell offshore corporations for the EG President and his sons; and over a three-year period, from 2000 to 2002, facilitated nearly $13 million in cash deposits into Riggs accounts controlled by the EG President and his wife.”
Riggs also opened an account that received large sums of money from oil companies that did business with Equatorial Guinea, including Exxon Mobil, Amerada Hess, Marathon Oil and ChevronTexaco. Riggs allowed the wire transfer of over $35 million from the account to two unknown companies. “The Subcommittee has reason to believe that at least one of these recipient companies is controlled in whole or in part by the EG President.”
Riggs appears to have acted as a conduit for large-scale bribes or other corrupt machinations between the giant oil corporations and the dictator of a country with which they were eager to do business. The report also noted that these oil companies made a number of large payments (sometimes valued at over $1 million) to individual officials or family members for a variety of services.
The manager of Riggs’ accounts for Equatorial Guinea was Simon P. Kareri, who was eventually fired by the bank in January 2004. According to a bank employee, on more than one occasion Kareri visited the Equatorial Guinean embassy and returned with a suitcase full of $3 million in cash, which was deposited in the bank with no reports to financial regulators.
According to the subcommittee report, “The bank leadership permitted [Kareri] ...to become closely involved with EG officials and business activities, including advising the EG government on financial matters and becoming the sole signatory on an EG account holding substantial funds. The bank exercised such lax oversight of the account manager’s activities that, among other misconduct, the account manager was able to wire transfer more than $1 million from the EG oil account at Riggs to another bank for an account opened in the name of Jadini Holdings, an offshore corporation controlled by the account manager’s wife.”
In addition to its dealings with the Saudi royal family and Equatorial Guinea’s dictator, Riggs had a close relationship with the former dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet held numerous active accounts at Riggs between 1994 and 2002, even while he was under house arrest in Britain and his assets were supposedly frozen.
According to the subcommittee report, “The aggregate deposits in the Pinochet accounts at Riggs ranged from $4 to $8 million at a time.... Riggs account managers took actions consistent with helping Mr. Pinochet to evade legal proceedings seeking to discover and attach his bank accounts.... Riggs opened multiple accounts and accepted millions of dollars in deposits from Mr. Pinochet with no serious inquiry into questions regarding the source of his wealth; helped him set up offshore shell corporations and open accounts in the names of those corporations to disguise his control of the accounts; altered the names of his personal accounts to disguise their ownership; transferred $1.6 million from London to the United States while Mr. Pinochet was in detention and the subject of a court order to attach his bank accounts; conducted transactions through Riggs’ own accounts to hide Mr. Pinochet’s involvement in some cash transactions; and delivered over $1.9 million in cashiers checks to Mr. Pinochet in Chile to enable him to obtain substantial cash payments from banks in that country.”
The scope of the corruption, money-laundering and other suspicious activities is indeed astonishing. While it was engaged in these activities, the bank operated under the not-so-watchful eye of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. In spite of clear indications of regulatory violations at least as early as 1997, the OCC took no actions.
Particularly closely involved with the OCC’s investigation into the Pinochet accounts was the comptroller’s examiner-in-charge, R. Ashley Lee, who worked at the OCC from 1998 to October 2002. According to the subcommittee report, “In 2001, [Lee]...advised more senior OCC personnel against taking a formal enforcement action against Riggs, because the bank had promised to correct identified AML deficiencies. In 2002, he ordered examiners not to include a memorandum or work papers on the Pinochet examination to the OCC’s electronic database.”
Lee went to work for Riggs two weeks later, quickly becoming an executive vice president and the chief risk officer. The subcommittee report states: “During his next 18-months at the bank, he attended a number of meetings with OCC personnel related to Riggs’ AML problems,” despite regulations prohibiting former OCC employees from attending meetings on OCC-related maters.
The revelations of the activities at Riggs Bank demonstrate how commonplace and extensive criminal activity has become within the American financial and political establishment. Not coincidentally, the bank’s activity has a great deal in common with certain features prominent in the Bush administration: the heavy influence of oil interests, the close ties with the Saudi ruling elite, the funding and support given to dictators and former dictators, including General Pinochet.
The relationship of Riggs to the Bush administration is more than tangential. Riggs owns a money management firm, J. Bush & Co., operated by Jonathan Bush, the brother of George H.W. Bush and the current president’s uncle.
Jonathan Bush played a very important role in helping find investors for the various failed oil businesses that George W. Bush ran before he began his career in politics. Jonathan Bush also helped raise money for George H.W. Bush and is a former chair of the New York Republican State Finance Committee. In 2000, he was briefly named president and CEO of Riggs Investment Management Company (RIMCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Riggs Bank.
While Jonathan Bush appears not to have been directly involved in the Saudi, Pinochet or Equatorial Guinean accounts, his position at Riggs is an indication of the close ties between the bank and the Bush family.
Moreover, Riggs is owned by the Allbritton family, a Texas family with close ties to the Republican establishment. Joe Allbritton, the former head of Riggs who bought the bank in the mid-1970s, is a friend of the Bush family. His son, Robert Allbritton, is the current chairman and CEO.
The Allbritton family is known among the Washington elite for the party it traditionally holds after the annual Alfalfa Club dinner, hosted to mark the birthday of Robert E. Lee, the southern general in the Civil War. The New York Times (“A Washington Bank, A Global Mess,” April 11, 2004) notes, “The Alfalfa roster includes presidents, politicians, diplomats and business impresarios, all bound together by being either formidably influential or fabulously rich. Attendees have included luminaries like Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States; Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America; and others with surnames like Greenspan, Kissinger and Rehnquist. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made their first joint public appearance after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the Alfalfa gathering in 2002.”
Valenti, who, like Allbritton and Bush, is a former Texas businessman, is also on the board of directors of Riggs Bank.
A television station also owned by Allbritton was in the news earlier this year after it refused to air an ad critical of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq.
Perhaps even more than the Enron scandal, the Riggs scandal is a deeply political scandal. No doubt, much of what went on at Riggs remains to be uncovered. With the announced sale of Riggs to PNL, which will be completed by early next year, the owners of the bank are clearly attempting to contain the scandal’s fallout.
Source: World Socialist Web Site
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Germany admits Namibia genocide
Germany has offered its first formal apology for the colonial-era massacre of some 65,000 members of the Herero tribe by German troops in Namibia. German minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul told a commemorative ceremony that the brutal crushing of the Herero uprising 100 years ago was genocide. But the German government has ruled out compensation for victims' descendants.
A group of Herero has filed a case against Germany in the United States demanding $4bn in compensation.
"We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility," Ms Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Development Aid Minister, told a crowd of some 1,000 at the ceremony in Okokarara. "Germany has learnt the bitter lessons of the past."
But after the minister's speech, the crowd repeated calls for an apology.
"Everything I said in my speech was an apology for crimes committed under German colonial rule," she replied.
Ms Wieczorek-Zeul repeated that there would be no compensation, but she promised continued economic aid for Namibia which currently amounts to $14m a year.
Driven into desert
The Herero rebelled in 1904 against German soldiers and settlers who were colonising south-west Africa.
In response, the German military commander, General Lothar von Trotha, ordered the Herero people to leave Namibia or be killed.
Germany argues that international laws to protect civilians were not in force at the time of the conflict.
Herero chief Kuaima Riruako said the apology was appreciated but added: "We still have the right to take the German government to court."
However, correspondents say the lawsuit filed in the US three years ago against the German government and two German companies is seen as having a limited chance of success.
Source: BBC
A group of Herero has filed a case against Germany in the United States demanding $4bn in compensation.
"We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility," Ms Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Development Aid Minister, told a crowd of some 1,000 at the ceremony in Okokarara. "Germany has learnt the bitter lessons of the past."
But after the minister's speech, the crowd repeated calls for an apology.
"Everything I said in my speech was an apology for crimes committed under German colonial rule," she replied.
Ms Wieczorek-Zeul repeated that there would be no compensation, but she promised continued economic aid for Namibia which currently amounts to $14m a year.
Driven into desert
The Herero rebelled in 1904 against German soldiers and settlers who were colonising south-west Africa.
In response, the German military commander, General Lothar von Trotha, ordered the Herero people to leave Namibia or be killed.
Germany argues that international laws to protect civilians were not in force at the time of the conflict.
Herero chief Kuaima Riruako said the apology was appreciated but added: "We still have the right to take the German government to court."
However, correspondents say the lawsuit filed in the US three years ago against the German government and two German companies is seen as having a limited chance of success.
Source: BBC
Friday, August 6, 2004
Inside the matrix
The quaint brotherhood in the liquidations industry is starting to fall apart, showing up some astonishing tactics. One meaning for Mafiosi, according to the Merriman-Webster dictionary, is a person who is a member of a group of people likened to the Mafia; especially: a group of people of similar interests or backgrounds prominent in a particular field or enterprise. It would probably be stretching a point to describe a group of people networked within South Africa’s liquidations sector as Mafiosi. Nevertheless, they do have an overriding interest in generating mountains of filthy lucre. And they are now being subjected, to increasing doses of public exposure.
There is perhaps one major – and totally surprising - factor that would disqualify the group as Mafia. Where the original Mafia were linked by origin as Sicilians, this group is as diverse as it gets. There are Muslim elements, such as liquidator Enver Motala, who was arrested on July 2 on charges of fraud and corruption. There are Jewish elements, in attorneys Stan Rothbart, and in Motala’s only remaining partner, Norman Simon, and also their disgruntled ex-partner, Mervyn Swartz.
And then there are the black players: on the fringes ex-justice minister Penuell Maduna, and Vusi Pikoli, who is still director general of the justice department. The picture would be incomplete without a middle-aged, bespectacled white Afrikaner, represented by Leon Lategan, one of Motala’s chief button men, and a senior officer in the Masters Office, the unit of the justice department which appoints liquidators according to its “unfettered discretion.”
One of Lategan’s most unforgettable Motala appointments was seen in respect of RAG, a R1-bn bankruptcy. Maduna intervened in that case, long after the original four liquidators had done all the work, and appointed Motala as fifth liquidator. The action was struck out by the High Court. Maduna then simply appointed Lategan as an extra Master in the Pietermaritzburg Masters Office, and Lategan simply appointed Motala to RAG, apparently in contempt of court. The appointment has, however, stuck.
Other key players fit in-between this group. Take Enver Daniels, the Chief State Law Adviser, who became acting MD of the Masters Business Unit on January 29, 2003. Daniels, who has recently been on study leave to complete his doctoral thesis in law, was a Marxist way back when, like Pikoli. Again, Pikoli knows Maduna very well from their days in exile from the apartheid regime, and so on.
Like most such organisations, there has been lots of training involved within this network. Simon and Swartz selected Motala as their front man for converting their business, SBT Trust, into a “black empowered” entity. The basis for this selection has never been understood. For one thing, Motala had been arrested on charges of fraud and corruption, back in 1989, amid an alleged massive sugar swindle in Middleburg, Mpumalanga. The case has yet to be prosecuted; the file just seems to keep traveling around the country for reasons that cannot be fully explained. However, in the 1990s, Motala acquired lots of experience in liquidations – but on the receiving end. According to Mohan Patel, a medical doctor who loaned hundreds of thousands of rands to Motala in and around the mid-1990s, Motala went from one bankruptcy to the next. Some of the businesses were burned to the ground, in accidents no doubt. Today, Patel is just one of the many judicial opponents that Motala faces. Patel is sore about suing Motala for return of loans and interest, but fails to understand how Motala could be so insensitive to Patel’s role, then anyway, as a friend helping when Motala was down and out. Well, not quite, recalls Patel. At the time, Motala was the apparent owner of two luxury BMWs, a sports Mercedes Benz and a Porsche. The way Patel remembers it, at least one of those cars was mysteriously stolen from Motala.
And then fast forward to the year 2000, by which time Motala had enjoyed the full benefits of being trained by some of the “best” in the brotherhood. At the time, an offensive to clear the way for Motala was being waged. At the end of 1999, Oliver Powell, one of the country’s leading liquidators, had been “bust” by Maduna.
On December 9, 1999, Maduna stated that “possible prosecutions for alleged corruption at the Pretoria Master’s Office were expected as early as next month.” It was not just Powell’s premises that had been raided. On October 24, 1999, the Scorpions, an investigative unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA, itself a unit of the justice department), also searched the Centurion home of the Master of the Pretoria High Court, Ben Nell. In November 1999, Nell and two of his deputies, Charles Stewart and Eugene Januarie, were suspended with immediate effect. To this day, none of the prosecutions that Maduna promised have materialized. On the contrary, Powell has won two major court cases this year, and orders that every last thing seized from him be returned. Powell’s final big case will see him suing – in their present and/or previous capacities - Maduna, Jan Swanepoel (then head of the Scorpions, now of PricewaterhouseCoopers), Basil Nel (then of PricewaterhouseCoopers) and a former Sunday Times journalist, Amanda Vermeulen, for R60-m. It has hardly escaped attention that when Motala was arrested on July 2, 2004, his arraignment, following search and seizure, was by the Serious Economic Offences Unit (SEO), an elite unit of the South African Police Services.
The Scorpions and SAPS are as chalk and cheese. In full, the Scorpions are the Directorate of Special Operations, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The NPA national director, Bulelani Ngcuka, has been in his position since mid-1998, and was thus Scorpions overlord when Powell’s business and personal life were ruined. Two weeks ago, news emerged that Ngcuka was resigning after only six years of his ten-year contract. Ngcuka reports to the new justice minister, Brigitte Mabandla. In another world, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi reports to the Minister for Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula. It is clear that Motala has not been investigated by the Scorpions. On the contrary, Motala has on more than one occasion publicly advertised that he was working with the Scorpions (for example, in the RAG and Krion cases), and has even been described in some media reports as the “Scorpions liquidator.”
The rivalry between the Scorpions and the SEO is hardly a secret. Maduna’s apparent protection of Motala may yet be countered by Maduna’s potential nemesis, in the form of Mike Tshishonga, a deputy director general in the justice department. In October 2003, Tshishonga blew the whistle, alleging that his political boss had a nepotistic relationship with Motala; further, that Maduna had “abused the infrastructure and staff of the justice department for the purposes of advancing his personal interests,” and that Maduna had endangered South Africa’s criminal justice system.
Beyond the criminal charges that Motala faces, his nemesis may well prove to be Garveni Creations, fast on its way to being the most infamous South African bankruptcy ever. This week, John Cameron, attorney to one of Garveni’s major creditors, PG Bison, released an independent report on the Garveni estate. It contained shocking new information, of a most detailed kind, on and around the behaviour of Motala, whose appointment to Garveni was voided by the High Court on April 29.Cameron alleges that “as has been suspected, the estate of Garveni has been maladministered by Motala and Frans Langford [the co-liquidator], their conduct being highly unprofessional, irregular and improper and deserving of the highest censure and in due course, will be the subject matter of various complaints and civil proceedings.” In earlier court papers, Cameron had alleged that the conduct of Motala in and around the Garveni case had been “prima facie suggestive of fraudulent conduct . . . the existence of fraudulent conduct is fortified and substantiated;” that “[Motala’s] appointment was sought and obtained under a very unusual set of circumstances, all of which are suggestive of fraud.” Among the more-alarming disclosures in Cameron’s new report, is that Neville Shifren, previously the CEO and major shareholder in Garveni, met Motala early in May this year; that is, after Motala had been removed as a Garveni liquidator. Motala presented Shifren with accounts of Knowles, Husein Lindsay, Inc (KHL), a prominent Johannesburg law firm. One of its senior partners, Mohamed Junaid Husein, had acted for Motala throughout the Garveni matter (and apparently continues to act for Motala). Shifren was presented with KHL accounts in an amount “in excess of R500 000.”Cameron states that, in regard to such accounts, Motala, after making certain calculations, demanded that Shifren “pay 50% thereof.” To this, Shifren reacted that “he would consider no such payment, to which Motala reacted that if that was the case, he would be locking up the premises and would prevent GOF [Garveni Office Furniture] from removing any further items therefrom.”The KHL account would have eaten a big chunk out of the Garveni estate, which had been valued initially at R4-m. Cameron’s new report shows that Rothbart also submitted “one account” to the Garveni estate. Rothbart’s “invoice does not indicate exactly what services were rendered and in regard to what matter and naturally, as Motala has failed to provide the relevant information, it is uncertain as to what professional services were rendered.” The Garveni estate also made out cheques to Motala’s brother, and to the son of Simon.
The nepotism first emerged at the “417” enquiry into RAG. There, the Masters Office is represented by Stephan du Toit, senior counsel, assisted by Rafik Bhana (apparently a relative of Motala) and Soraya Hassim (previously, or perhaps still, Motala’s fiancée, and the only apparent female member of the cast), and Husein. In the RAG matter, Rothbart represents Motala.Déjà vu. In the latest big liquidations event, the R1-bn-plus bankruptcy of MP Finance, more popularly known as Krion, a giant pyramid scheme, four liquidators were originally appointed in August 2002. On January 6, 2004, Lategan appointed two further Krion liquidators. One of them was Motala. One of the original liquidators Koos van Rensburg, of Negota KVR, asked Lategan to supply his reasons for appointing the new liquidators. Lategan failed to respond. Instead, Rothbart replied in writing that he now acted for Lategan and that further correspondence must be addressed to him. Rothbart’s letter appeared to have been the clearest admission that it is Motala, and not Lategan, who was making the Master’s decisions. There has been similar evidence that Motala stage-managed the RAG matter, and perhaps others, directly through Maduna’s offices.
Source: Money Web
There is perhaps one major – and totally surprising - factor that would disqualify the group as Mafia. Where the original Mafia were linked by origin as Sicilians, this group is as diverse as it gets. There are Muslim elements, such as liquidator Enver Motala, who was arrested on July 2 on charges of fraud and corruption. There are Jewish elements, in attorneys Stan Rothbart, and in Motala’s only remaining partner, Norman Simon, and also their disgruntled ex-partner, Mervyn Swartz.
And then there are the black players: on the fringes ex-justice minister Penuell Maduna, and Vusi Pikoli, who is still director general of the justice department. The picture would be incomplete without a middle-aged, bespectacled white Afrikaner, represented by Leon Lategan, one of Motala’s chief button men, and a senior officer in the Masters Office, the unit of the justice department which appoints liquidators according to its “unfettered discretion.”
One of Lategan’s most unforgettable Motala appointments was seen in respect of RAG, a R1-bn bankruptcy. Maduna intervened in that case, long after the original four liquidators had done all the work, and appointed Motala as fifth liquidator. The action was struck out by the High Court. Maduna then simply appointed Lategan as an extra Master in the Pietermaritzburg Masters Office, and Lategan simply appointed Motala to RAG, apparently in contempt of court. The appointment has, however, stuck.
Other key players fit in-between this group. Take Enver Daniels, the Chief State Law Adviser, who became acting MD of the Masters Business Unit on January 29, 2003. Daniels, who has recently been on study leave to complete his doctoral thesis in law, was a Marxist way back when, like Pikoli. Again, Pikoli knows Maduna very well from their days in exile from the apartheid regime, and so on.
Like most such organisations, there has been lots of training involved within this network. Simon and Swartz selected Motala as their front man for converting their business, SBT Trust, into a “black empowered” entity. The basis for this selection has never been understood. For one thing, Motala had been arrested on charges of fraud and corruption, back in 1989, amid an alleged massive sugar swindle in Middleburg, Mpumalanga. The case has yet to be prosecuted; the file just seems to keep traveling around the country for reasons that cannot be fully explained. However, in the 1990s, Motala acquired lots of experience in liquidations – but on the receiving end. According to Mohan Patel, a medical doctor who loaned hundreds of thousands of rands to Motala in and around the mid-1990s, Motala went from one bankruptcy to the next. Some of the businesses were burned to the ground, in accidents no doubt. Today, Patel is just one of the many judicial opponents that Motala faces. Patel is sore about suing Motala for return of loans and interest, but fails to understand how Motala could be so insensitive to Patel’s role, then anyway, as a friend helping when Motala was down and out. Well, not quite, recalls Patel. At the time, Motala was the apparent owner of two luxury BMWs, a sports Mercedes Benz and a Porsche. The way Patel remembers it, at least one of those cars was mysteriously stolen from Motala.
And then fast forward to the year 2000, by which time Motala had enjoyed the full benefits of being trained by some of the “best” in the brotherhood. At the time, an offensive to clear the way for Motala was being waged. At the end of 1999, Oliver Powell, one of the country’s leading liquidators, had been “bust” by Maduna.
On December 9, 1999, Maduna stated that “possible prosecutions for alleged corruption at the Pretoria Master’s Office were expected as early as next month.” It was not just Powell’s premises that had been raided. On October 24, 1999, the Scorpions, an investigative unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA, itself a unit of the justice department), also searched the Centurion home of the Master of the Pretoria High Court, Ben Nell. In November 1999, Nell and two of his deputies, Charles Stewart and Eugene Januarie, were suspended with immediate effect. To this day, none of the prosecutions that Maduna promised have materialized. On the contrary, Powell has won two major court cases this year, and orders that every last thing seized from him be returned. Powell’s final big case will see him suing – in their present and/or previous capacities - Maduna, Jan Swanepoel (then head of the Scorpions, now of PricewaterhouseCoopers), Basil Nel (then of PricewaterhouseCoopers) and a former Sunday Times journalist, Amanda Vermeulen, for R60-m. It has hardly escaped attention that when Motala was arrested on July 2, 2004, his arraignment, following search and seizure, was by the Serious Economic Offences Unit (SEO), an elite unit of the South African Police Services.
The Scorpions and SAPS are as chalk and cheese. In full, the Scorpions are the Directorate of Special Operations, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The NPA national director, Bulelani Ngcuka, has been in his position since mid-1998, and was thus Scorpions overlord when Powell’s business and personal life were ruined. Two weeks ago, news emerged that Ngcuka was resigning after only six years of his ten-year contract. Ngcuka reports to the new justice minister, Brigitte Mabandla. In another world, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi reports to the Minister for Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula. It is clear that Motala has not been investigated by the Scorpions. On the contrary, Motala has on more than one occasion publicly advertised that he was working with the Scorpions (for example, in the RAG and Krion cases), and has even been described in some media reports as the “Scorpions liquidator.”
The rivalry between the Scorpions and the SEO is hardly a secret. Maduna’s apparent protection of Motala may yet be countered by Maduna’s potential nemesis, in the form of Mike Tshishonga, a deputy director general in the justice department. In October 2003, Tshishonga blew the whistle, alleging that his political boss had a nepotistic relationship with Motala; further, that Maduna had “abused the infrastructure and staff of the justice department for the purposes of advancing his personal interests,” and that Maduna had endangered South Africa’s criminal justice system.
Beyond the criminal charges that Motala faces, his nemesis may well prove to be Garveni Creations, fast on its way to being the most infamous South African bankruptcy ever. This week, John Cameron, attorney to one of Garveni’s major creditors, PG Bison, released an independent report on the Garveni estate. It contained shocking new information, of a most detailed kind, on and around the behaviour of Motala, whose appointment to Garveni was voided by the High Court on April 29.Cameron alleges that “as has been suspected, the estate of Garveni has been maladministered by Motala and Frans Langford [the co-liquidator], their conduct being highly unprofessional, irregular and improper and deserving of the highest censure and in due course, will be the subject matter of various complaints and civil proceedings.” In earlier court papers, Cameron had alleged that the conduct of Motala in and around the Garveni case had been “prima facie suggestive of fraudulent conduct . . . the existence of fraudulent conduct is fortified and substantiated;” that “[Motala’s] appointment was sought and obtained under a very unusual set of circumstances, all of which are suggestive of fraud.” Among the more-alarming disclosures in Cameron’s new report, is that Neville Shifren, previously the CEO and major shareholder in Garveni, met Motala early in May this year; that is, after Motala had been removed as a Garveni liquidator. Motala presented Shifren with accounts of Knowles, Husein Lindsay, Inc (KHL), a prominent Johannesburg law firm. One of its senior partners, Mohamed Junaid Husein, had acted for Motala throughout the Garveni matter (and apparently continues to act for Motala). Shifren was presented with KHL accounts in an amount “in excess of R500 000.”Cameron states that, in regard to such accounts, Motala, after making certain calculations, demanded that Shifren “pay 50% thereof.” To this, Shifren reacted that “he would consider no such payment, to which Motala reacted that if that was the case, he would be locking up the premises and would prevent GOF [Garveni Office Furniture] from removing any further items therefrom.”The KHL account would have eaten a big chunk out of the Garveni estate, which had been valued initially at R4-m. Cameron’s new report shows that Rothbart also submitted “one account” to the Garveni estate. Rothbart’s “invoice does not indicate exactly what services were rendered and in regard to what matter and naturally, as Motala has failed to provide the relevant information, it is uncertain as to what professional services were rendered.” The Garveni estate also made out cheques to Motala’s brother, and to the son of Simon.
The nepotism first emerged at the “417” enquiry into RAG. There, the Masters Office is represented by Stephan du Toit, senior counsel, assisted by Rafik Bhana (apparently a relative of Motala) and Soraya Hassim (previously, or perhaps still, Motala’s fiancée, and the only apparent female member of the cast), and Husein. In the RAG matter, Rothbart represents Motala.Déjà vu. In the latest big liquidations event, the R1-bn-plus bankruptcy of MP Finance, more popularly known as Krion, a giant pyramid scheme, four liquidators were originally appointed in August 2002. On January 6, 2004, Lategan appointed two further Krion liquidators. One of them was Motala. One of the original liquidators Koos van Rensburg, of Negota KVR, asked Lategan to supply his reasons for appointing the new liquidators. Lategan failed to respond. Instead, Rothbart replied in writing that he now acted for Lategan and that further correspondence must be addressed to him. Rothbart’s letter appeared to have been the clearest admission that it is Motala, and not Lategan, who was making the Master’s decisions. There has been similar evidence that Motala stage-managed the RAG matter, and perhaps others, directly through Maduna’s offices.
Source: Money Web
Wednesday, July 7, 2004
ANC member charged with murder of farm couple
In the second prosecution of apartheid-era crimes not covered by an amnesty, the state has charged an ANC member with the murder of a farmer and his wife 19 years ago.
Ronnie Blani, 41, was allegedly part of a group of eight members of the then-banned ANC Youth League driven by the slogan "Kill the farmer, kill the boer". He did not apply for amnesty and is now facing two counts of murder for the brutal killing of farmer Koos de Jager and his wife Myrtle on June 17, 1985.
In the first prosecution, apartheid security police officer Gideon Niewoudt was arrested in February and charged with the 1985 murder of the Pebco Three - Sipho Hashe, Qaquwili Godolozi and Champion Galela - popular leaders of the ANC-inspired uprising in the Eastern Cape.
Blani fled to Angola soon after the killings. Niewoudt applied for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission but it was denied in June 1999 because he had failed to make a full disclosure of his crimes. He was also denied amnesty for the Motherwell bombing of three fellow security police officers and an informer suspected of having defected to the ANC.
Niewoudt is out on R50 000 bail and the case now hinges on Niewoudt's appeal against the TRC's refusal of amnesty. Blani was the only one of the group of eight to escape capture. Two, Ndumiso Siphenuka, 25, and Makwezana Menze, 42, were found guilty and were hanged in 1989. Two others, Similo Wonci and Mziwoxolo Makeleni, had their death sentences commuted at the last minute to life in jail and were later pardoned by President Thabo Mbeki and freed with three other members serving long jail terms. Blani fled to Angola soon after the killings and returned to South Africa only in 1992.
Twelve years later, Blani appeared in the Kirkwood magistrate's court on Tuesday, and his case was postponed to July 19 at the same court. He was warned to appear. It was his third appearance. On June 25 and 28, the case was postponed without charges being put to him. Blani said on Tuesday that he had not approached the TRC for amnesty because he thought he had returned home under a "blanket amnesty" for all exiles. One of the group of eight, Similo Wonci, on Tuesday condemned the prosecution. "We were all pardoned and I don't understand why Bulelani Ngcuka (national public prosecutions director) has now decided to prosecute Ronnie. We have asked the ANC to look into the matter," said Wonci.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Tuesday: "He (Blani) was involved in these crimes. "He is being charged and will have to appear in court."
Source: IoL
Ronnie Blani, 41, was allegedly part of a group of eight members of the then-banned ANC Youth League driven by the slogan "Kill the farmer, kill the boer". He did not apply for amnesty and is now facing two counts of murder for the brutal killing of farmer Koos de Jager and his wife Myrtle on June 17, 1985.
In the first prosecution, apartheid security police officer Gideon Niewoudt was arrested in February and charged with the 1985 murder of the Pebco Three - Sipho Hashe, Qaquwili Godolozi and Champion Galela - popular leaders of the ANC-inspired uprising in the Eastern Cape.
Blani fled to Angola soon after the killings. Niewoudt applied for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission but it was denied in June 1999 because he had failed to make a full disclosure of his crimes. He was also denied amnesty for the Motherwell bombing of three fellow security police officers and an informer suspected of having defected to the ANC.
Niewoudt is out on R50 000 bail and the case now hinges on Niewoudt's appeal against the TRC's refusal of amnesty. Blani was the only one of the group of eight to escape capture. Two, Ndumiso Siphenuka, 25, and Makwezana Menze, 42, were found guilty and were hanged in 1989. Two others, Similo Wonci and Mziwoxolo Makeleni, had their death sentences commuted at the last minute to life in jail and were later pardoned by President Thabo Mbeki and freed with three other members serving long jail terms. Blani fled to Angola soon after the killings and returned to South Africa only in 1992.
Twelve years later, Blani appeared in the Kirkwood magistrate's court on Tuesday, and his case was postponed to July 19 at the same court. He was warned to appear. It was his third appearance. On June 25 and 28, the case was postponed without charges being put to him. Blani said on Tuesday that he had not approached the TRC for amnesty because he thought he had returned home under a "blanket amnesty" for all exiles. One of the group of eight, Similo Wonci, on Tuesday condemned the prosecution. "We were all pardoned and I don't understand why Bulelani Ngcuka (national public prosecutions director) has now decided to prosecute Ronnie. We have asked the ANC to look into the matter," said Wonci.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Tuesday: "He (Blani) was involved in these crimes. "He is being charged and will have to appear in court."
Source: IoL
Monday, July 5, 2004
Rebels face Sierra Leone tribunal
A UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone has begun hearing the first cases against members of the rebel Revolutionary United Front. The RUF is blamed for killings, rapes and abductions during a decade of civil war that ended in 2002. But the first three defendants - who include the RUF's final military leader Issa Sesay - are refusing to acknowledge the court's legitimacy.
About 50,000 people were killed, and many more maimed and raped in the war. The RUF's internal security chief, Augustine Gbao, and a key battlefield commander, Morris Kallon, are on trial alongside Issa Hassan Sesay. The RUF's campaign of violence included hacking off the limbs of civilians as a trademark act of terror. The BBC's Lansana Fofana in Freetown says that Mr Sesay occasionally lowered his head as the 18 war crimes charges, including sexual slavery, murder, looting and terrorising civilians, were read out.
Chief Prosecutor David Crane said that atrocities were committed in virtually all parts of Sierra Leone. "This is the day I have been waiting for," said one amputee. "I am now satisfied that someone is being held accountable for what the rebels did to me." But correspondents say the tribunal's importance has been diminished by the deaths of RUF leader Foday Sankoh his deputy Sam Bockarie - best known under his nom de guerre Mosquito.
The tribunal has not yet been able to arrest the man accused of being the RUF's paymaster, former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Despite being indicted on 17 charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity, Mr Taylor is living a life of luxury in exile in Nigeria. Unlike the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the court is based where the alleged crimes occurred and draws on both national and international law.
Source: BBC
About 50,000 people were killed, and many more maimed and raped in the war. The RUF's internal security chief, Augustine Gbao, and a key battlefield commander, Morris Kallon, are on trial alongside Issa Hassan Sesay. The RUF's campaign of violence included hacking off the limbs of civilians as a trademark act of terror. The BBC's Lansana Fofana in Freetown says that Mr Sesay occasionally lowered his head as the 18 war crimes charges, including sexual slavery, murder, looting and terrorising civilians, were read out.
Chief Prosecutor David Crane said that atrocities were committed in virtually all parts of Sierra Leone. "This is the day I have been waiting for," said one amputee. "I am now satisfied that someone is being held accountable for what the rebels did to me." But correspondents say the tribunal's importance has been diminished by the deaths of RUF leader Foday Sankoh his deputy Sam Bockarie - best known under his nom de guerre Mosquito.
The tribunal has not yet been able to arrest the man accused of being the RUF's paymaster, former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Despite being indicted on 17 charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity, Mr Taylor is living a life of luxury in exile in Nigeria. Unlike the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the court is based where the alleged crimes occurred and draws on both national and international law.
Source: BBC
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
MILAN BABIC SENTENCED TO 13 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT
Milan Babic was born in 1956 in Kukar, in Croatia. He is married with two children, and is a dentist by profession.
In October 2001 Babic initiated contact with this Tribunal after learning that he had been named as a co-perpetrator in the Croatia Indictment issued in the case of Slobodan Miloševic in September 2001. Babic agreed to be interviewed by the Prosecution and to testify in the Miloševic case. An indictment against Babic was confirmed in November 2003. The indictment charged him with persecution, murder, cruel treatment, wanton destruction of villages or devastation not justified by military necessity, and destruction or wilful damage to institutions dedicated to education or religion. The charges were based on events which took place in Croatian Krajina from August 1991 to February 1992.
In November 2003 Babic surrendered to the Tribunal. Two months later he filed a plea agreement jointly with the Prosecution. According to this agreement, Babic would admit to having aided and abetted the crime of persecutions, committed by a joint criminal enterprise, as charged in count 1 of the indictment. The goal of the joint criminal enterprise was the forcible permanent removal of Croat and other non-Serb populations from approximately one-third of Croatia, in order to transform the acquired territory into a Serb-dominated state through the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.
Babic does not deny the seriousness of the crimes committed. Virtually the whole of the Croat and non-Serb population was expelled from the region in question, by forcible removal or by being caused to flee through fear of imminent attack. More than 200 civilians, including women and elderly persons, were murdered, and several hundred civilians were confined or imprisoned in inhumane conditions. The crime was characterized by ruthlessness and savagery and had a severe impact on victims and their relatives. Their suffering is still significant. The Trial Chamber is satisfied that Babic’s expression of remorse is sincere and constitutes a mitigating factor.
Having considered the arguments and the evidence presented by the parties, the Trial Chamber hereby sentences Milan Babic to 13 years of imprisonment. Milan Babic is entitled to credit for 211 days served in detention prior to this day. Milan Babic shall remain in the custody of the Tribunal until such time as arrangements for his transfer to the State in which he will serve his sentence have been finalized.
Source: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
In October 2001 Babic initiated contact with this Tribunal after learning that he had been named as a co-perpetrator in the Croatia Indictment issued in the case of Slobodan Miloševic in September 2001. Babic agreed to be interviewed by the Prosecution and to testify in the Miloševic case. An indictment against Babic was confirmed in November 2003. The indictment charged him with persecution, murder, cruel treatment, wanton destruction of villages or devastation not justified by military necessity, and destruction or wilful damage to institutions dedicated to education or religion. The charges were based on events which took place in Croatian Krajina from August 1991 to February 1992.
In November 2003 Babic surrendered to the Tribunal. Two months later he filed a plea agreement jointly with the Prosecution. According to this agreement, Babic would admit to having aided and abetted the crime of persecutions, committed by a joint criminal enterprise, as charged in count 1 of the indictment. The goal of the joint criminal enterprise was the forcible permanent removal of Croat and other non-Serb populations from approximately one-third of Croatia, in order to transform the acquired territory into a Serb-dominated state through the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.
Babic does not deny the seriousness of the crimes committed. Virtually the whole of the Croat and non-Serb population was expelled from the region in question, by forcible removal or by being caused to flee through fear of imminent attack. More than 200 civilians, including women and elderly persons, were murdered, and several hundred civilians were confined or imprisoned in inhumane conditions. The crime was characterized by ruthlessness and savagery and had a severe impact on victims and their relatives. Their suffering is still significant. The Trial Chamber is satisfied that Babic’s expression of remorse is sincere and constitutes a mitigating factor.
Having considered the arguments and the evidence presented by the parties, the Trial Chamber hereby sentences Milan Babic to 13 years of imprisonment. Milan Babic is entitled to credit for 211 days served in detention prior to this day. Milan Babic shall remain in the custody of the Tribunal until such time as arrangements for his transfer to the State in which he will serve his sentence have been finalized.
Source: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Friday, June 11, 2004
Congo National Troops Thwart Coup Attempt
Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila has appeared on national television to assure the public he is in charge after a coup attempt by a small band of renegades failed. In the broadcast, Mr. Kabila urged people to remain calm and vigilant.The coup attempt began after midnight Thursday when renegade forces took over the state radio station in the capital, Kinshasa. Coup leader -- Major Eric Lenge -- announced that the transitional government had been suspended. Following skirmishes with government security forces, Major Lenge and 21 of his men fled the capital. President Kabila said the army had arrested 12 of the renegade soldiers and was chasing the others. The arrested soldiers were all members of the presidential guard.
Source: Voice of America
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
UN links Rautenbach to DRC
Billy Rautenbach, the former head of Hyundai South Africa and the fugitive millionaire "somewhere in Africa", has been named in a secret report by the United Nations as a "prominent roleplayer" in corruption activities in Africa - particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This information was given exclusively to Beeld on Wednesday amid allegations in court documents that the DRC government and its officials owned various assets were being seized in South Africa and other countries.
A UN report, completed about four years ago, uncovered Rautenbach's corrupt activities in various African countries. At the time, copies of the report were distributed to a number of African heads of state, but nothing came of this. The existence of this report came to light amid efforts by Frans Rootman, a Pretoria investigator, to seize assets after winning a US$20m claim in September in Pretoria against the DRC government. By Wednesday, the DRC had not paid one cent towards the settlement, which included legal costs.
Chris Schoeman, who is representing Rootman in the asset-seizure process, on Wednesday registered an asset-seizure claim in the Belgium high court for DRC-owned property in this country. Millions of rands are also held in a DRC bank account in Belgium. Two of Rootman's attorneys, John Mendelsohn of Johannesburg and Gerhard Painter of Pretoria, confirmed the existence of the UN report on Wednesday. Mendelsohn said, however, the DRC refused to give them a copy of the report as it "contained state secrets".
Rautenbach, considered by the UN to be a prominent roleplayer in corruption, was appointed head of the state-controlled Gecamines by the late president, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. But, in the wake of this report, Kabila appointed Rootman to investigate the theft of large amounts of cobalt from Gecamines. In his investigations, Rootman also found Rautenbach to be a key figure in the disappearance of the cobalt.
Willie Hofmeyr of the SA national prosecutions authority said an international warrant of arrest had already been issued against Rautenbach. He said the UN was also working on an extradition. Sources close to Rautenbach said he was in Harare "where he has President Robert Mugabe and other ministers in his pocket". They also said it was common knowledge that Rautenbach had involved the late Kabila's government in his schemes.
Source: News 24
A UN report, completed about four years ago, uncovered Rautenbach's corrupt activities in various African countries. At the time, copies of the report were distributed to a number of African heads of state, but nothing came of this. The existence of this report came to light amid efforts by Frans Rootman, a Pretoria investigator, to seize assets after winning a US$20m claim in September in Pretoria against the DRC government. By Wednesday, the DRC had not paid one cent towards the settlement, which included legal costs.
Chris Schoeman, who is representing Rootman in the asset-seizure process, on Wednesday registered an asset-seizure claim in the Belgium high court for DRC-owned property in this country. Millions of rands are also held in a DRC bank account in Belgium. Two of Rootman's attorneys, John Mendelsohn of Johannesburg and Gerhard Painter of Pretoria, confirmed the existence of the UN report on Wednesday. Mendelsohn said, however, the DRC refused to give them a copy of the report as it "contained state secrets".
Rautenbach, considered by the UN to be a prominent roleplayer in corruption, was appointed head of the state-controlled Gecamines by the late president, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. But, in the wake of this report, Kabila appointed Rootman to investigate the theft of large amounts of cobalt from Gecamines. In his investigations, Rootman also found Rautenbach to be a key figure in the disappearance of the cobalt.
Willie Hofmeyr of the SA national prosecutions authority said an international warrant of arrest had already been issued against Rautenbach. He said the UN was also working on an extradition. Sources close to Rautenbach said he was in Harare "where he has President Robert Mugabe and other ministers in his pocket". They also said it was common knowledge that Rautenbach had involved the late Kabila's government in his schemes.
Source: News 24
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Liberian Ruler Can Be Tried, Court Rules
Charles G. Taylor, the former Liberian president accused of crimes against humanity in connection with a rebel insurrection in neighboring Sierra Leone, can be prosecuted by an international war crimes tribunal, a United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone ruled Monday.
Mr. Taylor's lawyers had argued that a court in one country had no right to try the head of state of another country. But the four judges on the appeals panel of the Special Court for Sierra Leone rejected that argument, ruling that as an international tribunal, the special court does have that authority. The ruling clears the last legal hurdle for the prosecution, but another more daunting one remains. Nigeria, which has sheltered Mr. Taylor since he stepped down as president of Liberia in August 2003, has so far rebuffed demands to turn him over to the court in Sierra Leone. The Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said only that he would return his guest to his home country if the Liberian courts seek to prosecute him.
Liberia, which emerged from 14 years of crushing civil war with Mr. Taylor's departure, has issued no such request. Mr. Taylor's lawyer in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, declined to comment on the special court's ruling. "I haven't read the report, so how can I comment on it?" said the lawyer, Terrence Terry.
The special court was created jointly by the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone to punish the ringleaders of that country's decade-long war. Mr. Taylor is the most prominent among 11 people indicted so far. He faces 17 counts of murder, rape and other crimes against humanity in connection with the support he reportedly gave the rebels in Sierra Leone. "With this decision, Charles Taylor has no more legal cards to play," said Richard Dicker, director of international justice for Human Rights Watch, based in New York. "The time has come for Nigeria to hand Taylor over to the special court." The special court will begin its first trial on Thursday. Among the defendants is Sam Hinga Norman, a former government minister in Sierra Leone accused of raising a terrifying pro-government militia, the Kamajors.
Source: New York Times
Mr. Taylor's lawyers had argued that a court in one country had no right to try the head of state of another country. But the four judges on the appeals panel of the Special Court for Sierra Leone rejected that argument, ruling that as an international tribunal, the special court does have that authority. The ruling clears the last legal hurdle for the prosecution, but another more daunting one remains. Nigeria, which has sheltered Mr. Taylor since he stepped down as president of Liberia in August 2003, has so far rebuffed demands to turn him over to the court in Sierra Leone. The Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said only that he would return his guest to his home country if the Liberian courts seek to prosecute him.
Liberia, which emerged from 14 years of crushing civil war with Mr. Taylor's departure, has issued no such request. Mr. Taylor's lawyer in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, declined to comment on the special court's ruling. "I haven't read the report, so how can I comment on it?" said the lawyer, Terrence Terry.
The special court was created jointly by the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone to punish the ringleaders of that country's decade-long war. Mr. Taylor is the most prominent among 11 people indicted so far. He faces 17 counts of murder, rape and other crimes against humanity in connection with the support he reportedly gave the rebels in Sierra Leone. "With this decision, Charles Taylor has no more legal cards to play," said Richard Dicker, director of international justice for Human Rights Watch, based in New York. "The time has come for Nigeria to hand Taylor over to the special court." The special court will begin its first trial on Thursday. Among the defendants is Sam Hinga Norman, a former government minister in Sierra Leone accused of raising a terrifying pro-government militia, the Kamajors.
Source: New York Times
Saturday, May 22, 2004
United Nations report highlights growing inequality in South Africa
The tenth anniversary of the end of apartheid and the first democratic elections in South Africa has been widely celebrated throughout the country. The government has used the occasion to congratulate itself on its performance in eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, and generally producing “a better life for all.” However, a report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) presents a different picture to that painted by politicians and government spokesmen.
One of the most significant issues affecting working class South Africans is massive unemployment. Over the last nine years the rate of unemployment has steadily increased, with between 30 and 42 percent of the labour force caught in “a vicious cycle of open unemployment.” Between 5.2 million and 8.4 million South Africans are unemployed, depending upon whether one applies the official definition or an extended definition of unemployment.
South Africa also has one of the most unequal distribution of incomes in the world, with approximately 60 percent of the population earning less than R42,000 per annum (about US$7,000), whereas 2.2 percent of the population have an income exceeding R360,000 per annum (about US$50,000).
Source: World Socialist Web
One of the most significant issues affecting working class South Africans is massive unemployment. Over the last nine years the rate of unemployment has steadily increased, with between 30 and 42 percent of the labour force caught in “a vicious cycle of open unemployment.” Between 5.2 million and 8.4 million South Africans are unemployed, depending upon whether one applies the official definition or an extended definition of unemployment.
South Africa also has one of the most unequal distribution of incomes in the world, with approximately 60 percent of the population earning less than R42,000 per annum (about US$7,000), whereas 2.2 percent of the population have an income exceeding R360,000 per annum (about US$50,000).
Source: World Socialist Web
Friday, May 14, 2004
Ramatlhodi: Inside the Scorpions probe
A Scorpions probe and a lawsuit brought by rugby boss Brian van Rooyen have opened a Limpopo province can of worms in which tender-rigging and financial favours to the African National Congress and former premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi are alleged.
The Mail & Guardian revealed last week that Ramatlhodi was earmarked to take over from Bulelani Ngcuka as head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) -- but that his appointment was stalled because he was being probed for corruption by the Scorpions, a division of the NPA. Ramatlhodi was a surprise omission from President Thabo Mbeki's Cabinet.
The NPA this week maintained its official policy of "no comment", but the M&G has ascertained key aspects of the probe from players in companies involved, and from court documents and related sources. At stake are the reputations of and potential criminal prosecutions against Ramatlhodi and Limpopo finance minister Thaba Mufamadi, who is also being probed. Both have denied the allegations.
Also of concern is the ethical implication of the ruling party receiving funding -- confirmed by key players -- flowing from a lucrative government contract. The controversial renewal of this contract, for the payment of social grants in the province, is being challenged in the Pretoria High Court by Van Rooyen and his company, Labat Africa Management Consulting. Labat claims the provincial government irregularly re-awarded the tender, worth about R250-million, to Cash Paymaster Services Northern (CPS) in late 2002 after a consortium led by Labat had scored higher on tender evaluation criteria. CPS and provincial authorities are opposing Labat's legal action.
Van Rooyen claims in court papers that tender criteria were "manipulated" by the late introduction of "track record" as a requirement. This, a Labat consortium representative charged this week, came after Labat had turned down a request for a bribe. CPS was first awarded the provincial grants contract in 1996. For much of the duration of this contract CPS was a joint venture between national technology company Aplitec and Limpopo-based Northern Corporate Investment Holdings, better known as Nicoh. It is Nicoh that has been funding the provincial ANC through a "charitable" trust set up to benefit the people and developing businesses in the province. It is also through Nicoh that individual politicians, Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi, are alleged to have benefited. Nicoh's principal players are lawyer Solly Mohale and businessman Gideon Serote. Also associated with it, whether directly or by way of the charitable trust called the Baobab Development Trust, are cane furniture king Habakuk Shikoane and prominent car dealer Haroun Moti.
There have been differences between the four over who are the true shareholders, but there is no dispute that Baobab has been at least a 10% beneficiary of Nicoh -- and that the ANC has benefited from Baobab. Mohale this week confirmed that Nicoh has given 10% of proceeds to Baobab, and that Baobab in turn has donated to the ANC. He refused to give a rand value, but the CPS deal has been estimated to have paid Nicoh R700 000 a month, which means R70 000 a month to Baobab. Said Mohale: "[Limpopo] is dominated by the main political party, the ANC ... If people come to ask for money, the trustees, if they agree with the objectives, will entertain it." He defended the party benefiting from a government contract, saying: "It depends on at what stage you are giving them money, whether it is open to everybody, and whether it is not illegal."
There are contradictory views on whether others besides the ANC benefited from Baobab. Mohale claimed "community structures" and other parties had also received donations. This was contradicted this week by Shikoane, who is the chairperson of Baobab. He said it was "only the ANC" and that he estimated that the total benefit to the party was "not more than R1-million".
ANC provincial secretary Cassell Mathale this week confirmed "it is quite possible [Baobab] may have donated money to the party", but would not comment further without checking the facts. Mufamadi, who is also the party's provincial treasurer, said: "The ANC receives donations from many business organisations."
As Baobab has funded the party, the question arises whether this helped CPS win the grants tender in the first place or when it was renewed. And if influential individual politicians Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi also benefited from the CPS contract via Nicoh -- the central question the Scorpions are trying to answer -- it would have been outright corruption. But the Scorpions investigation against Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi appears to have run into some difficulties. The original lead investigator, Cornwell Tshavhungwa, is now suspended from the Scorpions on corruption allegations relating to his dealings with a finance parastatal in Mpumalanga.
Tshavhungwa is understood to have recommended that the investigations into Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi be halted owing to a lack of evidence, but Ngcuka insisted that they be pursued. The M&G understands that Tshavhungwa interviewed key players such as Shikoane and Mohale, but neither of them confirmed the allegations. Other investigators have now taken over the probe from Tshavhungwa.
The Scorpions started probing the allegations against Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi last year after they were first publicly aired by noseweek magazine, which quoted Shikoane as confirming the kickbacks. Speaking to the M&G this week, Shikoane maintained no individuals had benefited. And Mohale said he had "no knowledge" of Ramatlhodi or Mufamadi having received money, "unless it was in their [ANC] executive capacities". Approached for comment, Mufamadi also denied individual benefit, saying it was "nonsense" and that "I have no relations with those companies that have been mentioned." Ramatlhodi referred all queries to the ANC.
Serge Belamont, chief executive of Aplitec, Nicoh's partner in CPS, said he had no knowledge of party funding flowing from the contract via Nicoh and the Baobab Development Trust, but said that "if that's the case it wouldn't be right". He said the province was correct to have re-awarded the contract to CPS rather than to Labat, as track record counted. "You are dealing with paying 800 000 poor people ... The tender board has a greater responsibility to decide than on simply who scored the highest points."
NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema this week said: "The NPA did not publish any information to the M&G or anyone for that matter that suggests that we are investigating Mr Ngoako Ramatlhodi and/or Mr Thaba Mufamadi. We are, therefore, unable to verify or deny any of your assertions."
Source: Mail & Guardian
The Mail & Guardian revealed last week that Ramatlhodi was earmarked to take over from Bulelani Ngcuka as head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) -- but that his appointment was stalled because he was being probed for corruption by the Scorpions, a division of the NPA. Ramatlhodi was a surprise omission from President Thabo Mbeki's Cabinet.
The NPA this week maintained its official policy of "no comment", but the M&G has ascertained key aspects of the probe from players in companies involved, and from court documents and related sources. At stake are the reputations of and potential criminal prosecutions against Ramatlhodi and Limpopo finance minister Thaba Mufamadi, who is also being probed. Both have denied the allegations.
Also of concern is the ethical implication of the ruling party receiving funding -- confirmed by key players -- flowing from a lucrative government contract. The controversial renewal of this contract, for the payment of social grants in the province, is being challenged in the Pretoria High Court by Van Rooyen and his company, Labat Africa Management Consulting. Labat claims the provincial government irregularly re-awarded the tender, worth about R250-million, to Cash Paymaster Services Northern (CPS) in late 2002 after a consortium led by Labat had scored higher on tender evaluation criteria. CPS and provincial authorities are opposing Labat's legal action.
Van Rooyen claims in court papers that tender criteria were "manipulated" by the late introduction of "track record" as a requirement. This, a Labat consortium representative charged this week, came after Labat had turned down a request for a bribe. CPS was first awarded the provincial grants contract in 1996. For much of the duration of this contract CPS was a joint venture between national technology company Aplitec and Limpopo-based Northern Corporate Investment Holdings, better known as Nicoh. It is Nicoh that has been funding the provincial ANC through a "charitable" trust set up to benefit the people and developing businesses in the province. It is also through Nicoh that individual politicians, Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi, are alleged to have benefited. Nicoh's principal players are lawyer Solly Mohale and businessman Gideon Serote. Also associated with it, whether directly or by way of the charitable trust called the Baobab Development Trust, are cane furniture king Habakuk Shikoane and prominent car dealer Haroun Moti.
There have been differences between the four over who are the true shareholders, but there is no dispute that Baobab has been at least a 10% beneficiary of Nicoh -- and that the ANC has benefited from Baobab. Mohale this week confirmed that Nicoh has given 10% of proceeds to Baobab, and that Baobab in turn has donated to the ANC. He refused to give a rand value, but the CPS deal has been estimated to have paid Nicoh R700 000 a month, which means R70 000 a month to Baobab. Said Mohale: "[Limpopo] is dominated by the main political party, the ANC ... If people come to ask for money, the trustees, if they agree with the objectives, will entertain it." He defended the party benefiting from a government contract, saying: "It depends on at what stage you are giving them money, whether it is open to everybody, and whether it is not illegal."
There are contradictory views on whether others besides the ANC benefited from Baobab. Mohale claimed "community structures" and other parties had also received donations. This was contradicted this week by Shikoane, who is the chairperson of Baobab. He said it was "only the ANC" and that he estimated that the total benefit to the party was "not more than R1-million".
ANC provincial secretary Cassell Mathale this week confirmed "it is quite possible [Baobab] may have donated money to the party", but would not comment further without checking the facts. Mufamadi, who is also the party's provincial treasurer, said: "The ANC receives donations from many business organisations."
As Baobab has funded the party, the question arises whether this helped CPS win the grants tender in the first place or when it was renewed. And if influential individual politicians Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi also benefited from the CPS contract via Nicoh -- the central question the Scorpions are trying to answer -- it would have been outright corruption. But the Scorpions investigation against Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi appears to have run into some difficulties. The original lead investigator, Cornwell Tshavhungwa, is now suspended from the Scorpions on corruption allegations relating to his dealings with a finance parastatal in Mpumalanga.
Tshavhungwa is understood to have recommended that the investigations into Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi be halted owing to a lack of evidence, but Ngcuka insisted that they be pursued. The M&G understands that Tshavhungwa interviewed key players such as Shikoane and Mohale, but neither of them confirmed the allegations. Other investigators have now taken over the probe from Tshavhungwa.
The Scorpions started probing the allegations against Ramatlhodi and Mufamadi last year after they were first publicly aired by noseweek magazine, which quoted Shikoane as confirming the kickbacks. Speaking to the M&G this week, Shikoane maintained no individuals had benefited. And Mohale said he had "no knowledge" of Ramatlhodi or Mufamadi having received money, "unless it was in their [ANC] executive capacities". Approached for comment, Mufamadi also denied individual benefit, saying it was "nonsense" and that "I have no relations with those companies that have been mentioned." Ramatlhodi referred all queries to the ANC.
Serge Belamont, chief executive of Aplitec, Nicoh's partner in CPS, said he had no knowledge of party funding flowing from the contract via Nicoh and the Baobab Development Trust, but said that "if that's the case it wouldn't be right". He said the province was correct to have re-awarded the contract to CPS rather than to Labat, as track record counted. "You are dealing with paying 800 000 poor people ... The tender board has a greater responsibility to decide than on simply who scored the highest points."
NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema this week said: "The NPA did not publish any information to the M&G or anyone for that matter that suggests that we are investigating Mr Ngoako Ramatlhodi and/or Mr Thaba Mufamadi. We are, therefore, unable to verify or deny any of your assertions."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
New cabinet surprises
Former housing minister Brigitte Mabandla was named South Africa's new Justice Minister on Wednesday. Announcing his new cabinet, President Thabo Mbeki announced that Mabandla's portfolio would be taken over by Intelligence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
Former Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour would take over as Correctional Services Minister but continue work with the 2010 soccer bid. He also named Naledi Pandor as the new Minister of Education, taking over from the retiring Kader Asmal. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is the new minister of Home Affairs, replacing IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The ministry of Public Enterprises has been handed to former Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin. He takes over from Jeff Radebe who becomes Transport Minister. Former Eastern Cape premier Makhenkesi Stofile becomes the Sports Minister, while the new post of Science and Technology Minister goes to Azanian People's Organisation leader Mosibudi Mangena. "This is a very strong team. I'm glad that when I spoke to them all last night and early this morning they responded well ... to the critical challenge which is the implementation of policy," Mbeki said after announcing the new cabinet.
Mbeki announced that the ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology will be split into a ministry of Art and Culture and a ministry of Science and Technology. "We have not paid enough attention to Arts and Culture over the past ten years," Mbeki said, adding that science in its own right was important for the development of the country. There will also be three additional women in cabinet and two more women at the deputy position, he said. "As you can see we have not reached 50%," he said refering to the percentage of women in parliament.
A list of members of the cabinet and theire credentials can be found here.
Source: News 24
Former Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour would take over as Correctional Services Minister but continue work with the 2010 soccer bid. He also named Naledi Pandor as the new Minister of Education, taking over from the retiring Kader Asmal. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is the new minister of Home Affairs, replacing IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The ministry of Public Enterprises has been handed to former Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin. He takes over from Jeff Radebe who becomes Transport Minister. Former Eastern Cape premier Makhenkesi Stofile becomes the Sports Minister, while the new post of Science and Technology Minister goes to Azanian People's Organisation leader Mosibudi Mangena. "This is a very strong team. I'm glad that when I spoke to them all last night and early this morning they responded well ... to the critical challenge which is the implementation of policy," Mbeki said after announcing the new cabinet.
Mbeki announced that the ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology will be split into a ministry of Art and Culture and a ministry of Science and Technology. "We have not paid enough attention to Arts and Culture over the past ten years," Mbeki said, adding that science in its own right was important for the development of the country. There will also be three additional women in cabinet and two more women at the deputy position, he said. "As you can see we have not reached 50%," he said refering to the percentage of women in parliament.
A list of members of the cabinet and theire credentials can be found here.
Source: News 24
Edna Molewa: Premier of North West Province
Edna Molewa served in the North West legislature for eight years before she was appointed premier in 2004. She was one of the first women chairpersons of a parliamentary committee, heading trade and industry until 1996, when she became North West minister for tourism, environment and conservation. Two years later, she headed the economic development and tourism portfolio and then moved on to the agriculture, conservation and environment portfolio.
Molewa began her career as a teacher in the 1970s before becoming involved in the underground structures of the liberation movement. She served on various trade union leadership structures: she was a first deputy president of Saccawu, and in women's organisations, she was a member of the Federation of Transvaal Women, then provincial chairperson of the ANC Women's League. She completed courses in economic leadership and administration at two prestigious American institutions: the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Kennedy School of Governance at Harvard University.
Picture: http://www.info.gov.za/images/cabinet/molewa_large.jpg
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
PREVENTION AND COMBATING OF CORRUPT ACTIVITIES ACT 12 OF 2004
The purpose of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act is to provide for the strengthening of measures to prevent and combat corruption and corrupt activities; to provide for the offence of corruption and offences relating to corrupt activities; to provide for investigative measures in respect of corruption and related corrupt activities; to provide for the establishment and endorsement of a Register in order to place certain restrictions on persons and enterprises convicted of corrupt activities relating to tenders and contracts; to place a duty on certain persons holding a position of authority to report certain corrupt transactions; to provide for extraterritorial jurisdiction in respect of the offence of corruption and offences relating to corrupt activities; and to provide for matters connected therewith.
WHEREAS the Constitution enshrines the rights of all people in the Republic and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom;
AND WHEREAS the Constitution places a duty on the State to respect, protect, promote and fulfil all the rights as enshrined in the Bill of Rights;
AND WHEREAS corruption and related corrupt activities undermine the said rights, endanger the stability and security of societies, undermine the institutions and values of democracy and ethical values and morality, jeopardise sustainable development, the rule of law and the credibility of governments, and provide a breeding ground for organised crime;
AND WHEREAS the illicit acquisition of personal wealth can be particularly damaging to democratic institutions, national economies, ethical values and the rule of law;
AND WHEREAS there are links between corrupt activities and other forms of crime, in particular organised crime and economic crime, including money-laundering;
AND WHEREAS corruption is a transnational phenomenon that crosses national borders and affects all societies and economies, and is equally destructive and reprehensible within both the public and private spheres of life, so that regional and international cooperation is essential to prevent and control corruption and related corrupt activities;
AND WHEREAS a comprehensive, integrated and multidisciplinary approach is required to prevent and combat corruption and related corrupt activities efficiently and effectively;
AND WHEREAS the availability of technical assistance can play an important role in enhancing the ability of States, including by strengthening capacity and by institution-building, to prevent and combat corruption and related corrupt activities efficiently and effectively;
AND WHEREAS the prevention and combating of corruption and related corrupt activities is a responsibility of all States requiring mutual cooperation, with the support and involvement of individuals and groups outside the public sector, such as organs of civil society and non- governmental and community-based organizations, if their efforts in this area are to be efficient and effective;
AND WHEREAS the United Nations has adopted various resolutions condemning all corrupt practices, and urged member states to take effective and concrete action to combat all forms of corruption and related corrupt practices;
AND WHEREAS the Southern African Development Community Protocol against Corruption, adopted on 14 August 2001 in Malawi, reaffirmed the need to eliminate the scourges of corruption through the adoption of effective preventive and deterrent measures and by strictly enforcing legislation against all types of corruption;
AND WHEREAS the Republic of South Africa desires to be in compliance with and to become Party to the United Nations Convention against Corruption adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 31 October 2003;
AND WHEREAS it is desirable to unbundle the crime of corruption in terms of which, in addition to the creation of a general, broad and all-encompassing offence of corruption, various specific corrupt activities are criminalized.
Source: SABINET
WHEREAS the Constitution enshrines the rights of all people in the Republic and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom;
AND WHEREAS the Constitution places a duty on the State to respect, protect, promote and fulfil all the rights as enshrined in the Bill of Rights;
AND WHEREAS corruption and related corrupt activities undermine the said rights, endanger the stability and security of societies, undermine the institutions and values of democracy and ethical values and morality, jeopardise sustainable development, the rule of law and the credibility of governments, and provide a breeding ground for organised crime;
AND WHEREAS the illicit acquisition of personal wealth can be particularly damaging to democratic institutions, national economies, ethical values and the rule of law;
AND WHEREAS there are links between corrupt activities and other forms of crime, in particular organised crime and economic crime, including money-laundering;
AND WHEREAS corruption is a transnational phenomenon that crosses national borders and affects all societies and economies, and is equally destructive and reprehensible within both the public and private spheres of life, so that regional and international cooperation is essential to prevent and control corruption and related corrupt activities;
AND WHEREAS a comprehensive, integrated and multidisciplinary approach is required to prevent and combat corruption and related corrupt activities efficiently and effectively;
AND WHEREAS the availability of technical assistance can play an important role in enhancing the ability of States, including by strengthening capacity and by institution-building, to prevent and combat corruption and related corrupt activities efficiently and effectively;
AND WHEREAS the prevention and combating of corruption and related corrupt activities is a responsibility of all States requiring mutual cooperation, with the support and involvement of individuals and groups outside the public sector, such as organs of civil society and non- governmental and community-based organizations, if their efforts in this area are to be efficient and effective;
AND WHEREAS the United Nations has adopted various resolutions condemning all corrupt practices, and urged member states to take effective and concrete action to combat all forms of corruption and related corrupt practices;
AND WHEREAS the Southern African Development Community Protocol against Corruption, adopted on 14 August 2001 in Malawi, reaffirmed the need to eliminate the scourges of corruption through the adoption of effective preventive and deterrent measures and by strictly enforcing legislation against all types of corruption;
AND WHEREAS the Republic of South Africa desires to be in compliance with and to become Party to the United Nations Convention against Corruption adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 31 October 2003;
AND WHEREAS it is desirable to unbundle the crime of corruption in terms of which, in addition to the creation of a general, broad and all-encompassing offence of corruption, various specific corrupt activities are criminalized.
Source: SABINET
Saturday, April 17, 2004
BASA: Awesome Africa Music Festival
“The arts are the soul of a people: they express their joys and sorrows, their fears and their hopes. The history of our cultural heritage is one to be preserved and inspire us to new creation.”
Athol Fugard,
Patron of Arts & Culture Trust
“The Festival’s links to the City (of Durban) have opened up various channels which have enabled the bank to forge a closer working relationship with local and provincial government. It has also given us the opportunity to endorse the City’s regeneration programme in the Albert Park area which will eventually offer more business opportunities for the bank.”
Thomas Naidoo, Provincial Director, Standard Bank
Results:Through its sponsorship of the festival, the Bank is seen to be making a direct contribution to the regeneration of the City. Arising from this is a successful partnership with the City of Durban, an important business partner for the Bank.
Source: BASA
Athol Fugard,
Patron of Arts & Culture Trust
“The Festival’s links to the City (of Durban) have opened up various channels which have enabled the bank to forge a closer working relationship with local and provincial government. It has also given us the opportunity to endorse the City’s regeneration programme in the Albert Park area which will eventually offer more business opportunities for the bank.”
Thomas Naidoo, Provincial Director, Standard Bank
Results:Through its sponsorship of the festival, the Bank is seen to be making a direct contribution to the regeneration of the City. Arising from this is a successful partnership with the City of Durban, an important business partner for the Bank.
Source: BASA
Monday, April 5, 2004
Gito Baloi shot dead
Gito Baloi, a bass guitarist originally from Mozambique, lived and performed in South Africa for many years.
Gito Baloi, 39, was driving home from a gig in Pretoria when he was attacked. Eyewitnesses say he was shot three times through the window of his car by two men as he dropped off a friend in central Johannesburg.
This is the second killing of a high profile musician in Johannesburg this year - in February the lead singer of the band Mafikizolo, popular with young black people, was shot in Soweto in a road-rage incident.
His murder comes one week before a general election, in which South Africa's high crime rate is an important issue.
Source: BBC News
Gito Baloi, 39, was driving home from a gig in Pretoria when he was attacked. Eyewitnesses say he was shot three times through the window of his car by two men as he dropped off a friend in central Johannesburg.
This is the second killing of a high profile musician in Johannesburg this year - in February the lead singer of the band Mafikizolo, popular with young black people, was shot in Soweto in a road-rage incident.
His murder comes one week before a general election, in which South Africa's high crime rate is an important issue.
Source: BBC News
Friday, March 26, 2004
Suharto, Marcos and Mobutu head corruption table with $50bn scams
Mohammed Suharto, Ferdinand Marcos and Mobutu Sese Seko ripped off up to $50bn (£28bn) from the impoverished people of Indonesia, the Philippines and Zaire, a sum equivalent to the entire annual aid budget of the west, anti-bribery campaigners said yesterday.
Releasing a list of the top 10 most corrupt politicians of the past two decades, headed by the former Indonesian dictator, Transparency International warned that the scale of political corruption was undermining hopes for prosperity in the developing world and damaging the global economy.
No country is immune from corruption, the report says, citing the lax controls over political financing in Greece, the close connection between companies and the Bush administration and the unchallenged power of Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, over his country's media.
But the most egregious examples of wholesale looting have occurred in the developing world, TI said, depriving the desperately poor of vital state resources.
"The abuse of political power for private gain deprives the most needy of vital public services, creating a level of despair that breeds conflict and violence," said Peter Eigen, TI's chairman.
Most of the names on the list were protected by western governments who turned a blind eye to their criminal activities in exchange for support during the cold war.
Suharto, regarded as a bulwark against communism in Asia, stole as much as $35bn from his impoverished country during his three decades in power, before being deposed in 1998 in a popular uprising that was triggered by the Asian economic crisis.
He was charged with looting up to $500m from the state through various charities controlled by his family, but the judges ruled that he was too ill to stand trial.
Marcos, whose wife's 3,000-piece shoe collection became a byword for the corrupt excesses of his regime, was backed by successive US administrations.
Efforts to track down the estimated $10bn he embezzled during his 20 years in power were frustrated by years of strict banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. In August last year, 14 years after his death, the Swiss courts finally authorised the release of $657m to the Philippines' authorities.
Mobutu cleverly used the threat of an invasion from the then Marxist government of Angola to quieten concerns in the west about his increasingly blatant looting from one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa. Washington leaned on the International Monetary Fund to continue lending, despite the doubts of IMF officials.
By the time he was overthrown in 1997, Mobutu had stolen almost half of the $12bn in aid money that Zaire - now the Democratic Republic of Congo - received from the IMF during his 32-year reign, leaving his country saddled with a crippling debt.
Western multinationals must take responsibility for allowing corruption to flourish, TI says. "The corporate sector has a vital role to play in ending the abuse of power," the report says.
Bribery of local officials by western business is still widespread, despite global initiatives to stamp it out, such as the UN convention against corruption. The culture of secrecy surrounding access to resources in the developing world allows corrupt governments to hide revenues from their populations.
Companies from Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Canada topped TI's list of bribe-payers last year [companies from those countries are least likely to bribe, not most likely to bribe], despite the introduction of anti-corruption laws to comply with an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development convention banning bribery of foreign officials.
"We are very much aware that a lot of the responsibility for corruption in the developing world has been with northern companies and northern institutions," said Mr Eigen.
Britain was singled out for dragging its feet on the implementation of the OECD convention. It only outlawed the bribing of officials abroad two years ago, and no one has been prosecuted so far.
Oil, a curse more often than a blessing for poor countries, is a significant factor in corruption. "The flow of oil money is so vast it can distort decision-making in poor producer countries and the rich world alike," the report says.
On the take
Head of state Mohammed Suharto
Place, time Indonesia, 1967-98
Amount $15bn-$35bn
Head of state Ferdinand Marcos
Place, time Philippines, 1972-86
Amount $5bn-$10bn
Head of state Mobutu Sese Seko
Place, time Zaire, 1965-97
Amount $5bn
Head of state Sani Abacha
Place, time Nigeria, 1993-98
Amount $2bn-$5bn
Head of state Slobodan Milosevic
Place, time Serbia, 1972-86
Amount $1bn
Head of state Jean-Claude Duvalier
Place, time Haiti, 1971-86
Amount $300m-$800m
Head of state Alberto Fujimori
Place, time Peru, 1990-2000
Amount $600m
Head of state Pavlo Lazarenko
Place, time Ukraine 1996-97
Amount $114m-$200m
Head of state Arnoldo Alemán
Place, time Nicaragua, 1997-2002
Amount $100m
Head of state Joseph Estrada
Place, time Philippines, 1998-2001
Amount $78m-$80m
Source: The Guardian
Releasing a list of the top 10 most corrupt politicians of the past two decades, headed by the former Indonesian dictator, Transparency International warned that the scale of political corruption was undermining hopes for prosperity in the developing world and damaging the global economy.
No country is immune from corruption, the report says, citing the lax controls over political financing in Greece, the close connection between companies and the Bush administration and the unchallenged power of Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, over his country's media.
But the most egregious examples of wholesale looting have occurred in the developing world, TI said, depriving the desperately poor of vital state resources.
"The abuse of political power for private gain deprives the most needy of vital public services, creating a level of despair that breeds conflict and violence," said Peter Eigen, TI's chairman.
Most of the names on the list were protected by western governments who turned a blind eye to their criminal activities in exchange for support during the cold war.
Suharto, regarded as a bulwark against communism in Asia, stole as much as $35bn from his impoverished country during his three decades in power, before being deposed in 1998 in a popular uprising that was triggered by the Asian economic crisis.
He was charged with looting up to $500m from the state through various charities controlled by his family, but the judges ruled that he was too ill to stand trial.
Marcos, whose wife's 3,000-piece shoe collection became a byword for the corrupt excesses of his regime, was backed by successive US administrations.
Efforts to track down the estimated $10bn he embezzled during his 20 years in power were frustrated by years of strict banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. In August last year, 14 years after his death, the Swiss courts finally authorised the release of $657m to the Philippines' authorities.
Mobutu cleverly used the threat of an invasion from the then Marxist government of Angola to quieten concerns in the west about his increasingly blatant looting from one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa. Washington leaned on the International Monetary Fund to continue lending, despite the doubts of IMF officials.
By the time he was overthrown in 1997, Mobutu had stolen almost half of the $12bn in aid money that Zaire - now the Democratic Republic of Congo - received from the IMF during his 32-year reign, leaving his country saddled with a crippling debt.
Western multinationals must take responsibility for allowing corruption to flourish, TI says. "The corporate sector has a vital role to play in ending the abuse of power," the report says.
Bribery of local officials by western business is still widespread, despite global initiatives to stamp it out, such as the UN convention against corruption. The culture of secrecy surrounding access to resources in the developing world allows corrupt governments to hide revenues from their populations.
Companies from Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Canada topped TI's list of bribe-payers last year [companies from those countries are least likely to bribe, not most likely to bribe], despite the introduction of anti-corruption laws to comply with an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development convention banning bribery of foreign officials.
"We are very much aware that a lot of the responsibility for corruption in the developing world has been with northern companies and northern institutions," said Mr Eigen.
Britain was singled out for dragging its feet on the implementation of the OECD convention. It only outlawed the bribing of officials abroad two years ago, and no one has been prosecuted so far.
Oil, a curse more often than a blessing for poor countries, is a significant factor in corruption. "The flow of oil money is so vast it can distort decision-making in poor producer countries and the rich world alike," the report says.
On the take
Head of state Mohammed Suharto
Place, time Indonesia, 1967-98
Amount $15bn-$35bn
Head of state Ferdinand Marcos
Place, time Philippines, 1972-86
Amount $5bn-$10bn
Head of state Mobutu Sese Seko
Place, time Zaire, 1965-97
Amount $5bn
Head of state Sani Abacha
Place, time Nigeria, 1993-98
Amount $2bn-$5bn
Head of state Slobodan Milosevic
Place, time Serbia, 1972-86
Amount $1bn
Head of state Jean-Claude Duvalier
Place, time Haiti, 1971-86
Amount $300m-$800m
Head of state Alberto Fujimori
Place, time Peru, 1990-2000
Amount $600m
Head of state Pavlo Lazarenko
Place, time Ukraine 1996-97
Amount $114m-$200m
Head of state Arnoldo Alemán
Place, time Nicaragua, 1997-2002
Amount $100m
Head of state Joseph Estrada
Place, time Philippines, 1998-2001
Amount $78m-$80m
Source: The Guardian
Friday, March 12, 2004
'We're not sorry for kill the boer slogan'
It's a slogan that the Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) called hate speech last year and it has resurfaced in the flurry of party propaganda in the run-up to the elections. Earlier this year, the Freedom Front Plus lodged a complaint against Mangaliso Kubheka, national organiser of the Landless People's Movement, claiming he had said "kill the farmer, kill the boer" during a speech.
The SAHRC investigated the complaint and ruled that the LPM apologise publicly via the newspaper Rapport, which had reported on the offending speech. They have until March 23 to respond. However, a defiant Mangaliso Kubheka told Saturday Star that the party would not apologise. "We have nothing to apologise for. The Freedom Front Plus is not a friend or a relative. Maybe the HRC should apologise for talking about things I do not know about."
Kubheka said he did not think the "kill the farmer, kill the boer" slogan constituted hate speech. "We are talking about a party that is calling for the death penalty. Can they tell you who the slogan was directed at anyway? If they say it's hate speech then they must say who it is directed at," Kubheka said. Leon Louw, spokesperson for the Freedom Front plus, said the party was considering suing the LPM. "We are waiting until the cut-off date and if there has not been a response by then, we will definitely take further steps."
Mogam Moodliar, head of legal services at the SAHRC, said their recommendation was that the LPM must apologise for the comments but should that not happen, the commission had brainstormed various responses. "We could mediate, ask the party if they really meant it, or the Freedom Front Plus could take the issue to the Equality Court."
Last June, the Freedom Front Plus lodged a complaint with the SAHRC after African National Congress members used the slogan during two public meetings, one of which was the funeral of ANC MP Peter Mokaba in 2002. On appeal, the SAHRC said the killing of a group of people was an "advocacy of hatred" that amounted to harm.
But Moodliar said this pronouncement did not result in any legal precedent. "It does not mean that every utterance is hate speech. We need to look at whether there was harm caused or intention to cause harm," he said.
Source: IoL
The SAHRC investigated the complaint and ruled that the LPM apologise publicly via the newspaper Rapport, which had reported on the offending speech. They have until March 23 to respond. However, a defiant Mangaliso Kubheka told Saturday Star that the party would not apologise. "We have nothing to apologise for. The Freedom Front Plus is not a friend or a relative. Maybe the HRC should apologise for talking about things I do not know about."
Kubheka said he did not think the "kill the farmer, kill the boer" slogan constituted hate speech. "We are talking about a party that is calling for the death penalty. Can they tell you who the slogan was directed at anyway? If they say it's hate speech then they must say who it is directed at," Kubheka said. Leon Louw, spokesperson for the Freedom Front plus, said the party was considering suing the LPM. "We are waiting until the cut-off date and if there has not been a response by then, we will definitely take further steps."
Mogam Moodliar, head of legal services at the SAHRC, said their recommendation was that the LPM must apologise for the comments but should that not happen, the commission had brainstormed various responses. "We could mediate, ask the party if they really meant it, or the Freedom Front Plus could take the issue to the Equality Court."
Last June, the Freedom Front Plus lodged a complaint with the SAHRC after African National Congress members used the slogan during two public meetings, one of which was the funeral of ANC MP Peter Mokaba in 2002. On appeal, the SAHRC said the killing of a group of people was an "advocacy of hatred" that amounted to harm.
But Moodliar said this pronouncement did not result in any legal precedent. "It does not mean that every utterance is hate speech. We need to look at whether there was harm caused or intention to cause harm," he said.
Source: IoL
Thursday, February 19, 2004
DA goes to court over 'Kill the boer' slogan
The Democratic Alliance is to take the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to the newly established Equality Court for incitement to violence.
This comes after members of the tripartite alliance brandished posters saying "Kill the boer, kill the farmer" outside the Phalaborwa magistrate's court in Limpopo on Tuesday. Other posters waved outside the court read "Tired with the boers" and "Castrate the boers".
The angry ANC, SACP and Cosatu members were protesting over the brutal murder of former construction worker Nelson Chisale, who was fed to lions near Hoedspruit last month, allegedly by his former boss Mark Scott-Crossley, 35, and three other men, Simon Mathebula, 43, Richard Mathebula, 41, and Robert Mnisi, 34.
The murder charge against Mnisi was withdrawn on Tuesday, apparently after he agreed to turn state witness. Last year, the South African Human Rights Commission declared the slogan "Kill the boer, kill the farmer" to be hate speech. "It was outrageous for those slogans to have been used," DA spokesperson Sandra Botha said on Wednesday. "We should be getting rid of racism, instead they (the tripartite alliance) are using slogans that have been ruled as hate speech." Botha said that only one person accused of the murder was white, and that the crime was not racially motivated. "Whenever a white person is accused of a crime (against a black person) then the slogans are used against a section of the population, the farmers," said Botha.
She added that Scott-Crossley was not a farmer, but owned a construction company which he ran from a smallholding. However, the tripartite alliance has come out fighting, saying the DA is politicking during an election year.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said: "The question they are raising is about members using the slogans, whereas it is (actually) about one human being throwing another to the lions. "Our primary focus at the protest was to highlight the barbarism of the people who allegedly fed a man to the lions," he said. Ngonyama added that the DA was trying to "hide" the killing by only highlighting the sloganeering.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said: "We have made it quite clear that 'kill the boer, kill the farmer' is not and was never a Cosatu slogan. We understand how those protesters were feeling, and we believe in the rule of the law, and that law should take its course."
SACP spokesperson Mazibuko Jara called the DA "melodramatic" and "opportunistic". "The DA is trying to divert attention away from racism, the exploitation of farmworkers and violence on farms. The DA should condemn these atrocities and enter into dialogue with the people affected," Jara said.
Source: IoL
This comes after members of the tripartite alliance brandished posters saying "Kill the boer, kill the farmer" outside the Phalaborwa magistrate's court in Limpopo on Tuesday. Other posters waved outside the court read "Tired with the boers" and "Castrate the boers".
The angry ANC, SACP and Cosatu members were protesting over the brutal murder of former construction worker Nelson Chisale, who was fed to lions near Hoedspruit last month, allegedly by his former boss Mark Scott-Crossley, 35, and three other men, Simon Mathebula, 43, Richard Mathebula, 41, and Robert Mnisi, 34.
The murder charge against Mnisi was withdrawn on Tuesday, apparently after he agreed to turn state witness. Last year, the South African Human Rights Commission declared the slogan "Kill the boer, kill the farmer" to be hate speech. "It was outrageous for those slogans to have been used," DA spokesperson Sandra Botha said on Wednesday. "We should be getting rid of racism, instead they (the tripartite alliance) are using slogans that have been ruled as hate speech." Botha said that only one person accused of the murder was white, and that the crime was not racially motivated. "Whenever a white person is accused of a crime (against a black person) then the slogans are used against a section of the population, the farmers," said Botha.
She added that Scott-Crossley was not a farmer, but owned a construction company which he ran from a smallholding. However, the tripartite alliance has come out fighting, saying the DA is politicking during an election year.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said: "The question they are raising is about members using the slogans, whereas it is (actually) about one human being throwing another to the lions. "Our primary focus at the protest was to highlight the barbarism of the people who allegedly fed a man to the lions," he said. Ngonyama added that the DA was trying to "hide" the killing by only highlighting the sloganeering.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said: "We have made it quite clear that 'kill the boer, kill the farmer' is not and was never a Cosatu slogan. We understand how those protesters were feeling, and we believe in the rule of the law, and that law should take its course."
SACP spokesperson Mazibuko Jara called the DA "melodramatic" and "opportunistic". "The DA is trying to divert attention away from racism, the exploitation of farmworkers and violence on farms. The DA should condemn these atrocities and enter into dialogue with the people affected," Jara said.
Source: IoL
Friday, February 13, 2004
NPA ‘strengthened by Hefer Commission'
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has emerged as a stronger organisation following the Hefer Commission, national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka said yesterday. "We faced one of the toughest public tests any organisation can face. This does not happen with many institutions, especially not with organs of state. However, there should not be any doubt in our minds that as an organisation we emerged a lot stronger after the Hefer Commission".
Ngcuka was speaking at the NPA's national conference in Johannesburg. He said the Hefer Commission had united the personnel of the NPA. "We emerged stronger also because the people of South Africa witnessed first hand what the allegations were about. The result was that public confidence in the NPA and law enforcement in general increased". He warned that this confidence came at a price: "The price is that our obligations towards the public we are serving have now increased. People are now going to expect more from... the NPA, which is a positive challenge for us".
Ngcuka said the commission had also "exposed and tested the vulnerability of the relationships between the law enforcement agencies". The NPA now had to find ways to rebuild those relationships. The organisation's operations had also been tested in the process, he said. This was an apparent reference to former transport minister Mac Maharaj allegation that someone in NPA's investigating arm, the Scorpions, had leaked information to the media claiming his wife, Zarina, was being investigated for tax invasion. Ngcuka said: "Organisationally we need to re-examine our policies, procedures and processes. If we find any weaknesses, we need to tighten those up". Ngcuka said the organisation was still trying to come to terms with the impact of the commission. "We should determine, without delay, the extent of whatever collateral damage the whole Hefer episode might have caused to the reputation and the capacity of the NPA to meet the demands of its mandate".
Ngcuka said he chose to see the Hefer Commission as a positive opportunity to start afresh. "I am not saying that Hefer was not a painful experience nor that it did not do damage. It was painful and it has caused damage". Ngcuka said in the past the NPA had focused on technical competence. "Our experience during the Hefer Commission and our initial assessment of the impact of the commission on our organisation, clearly shows that the time has come to shift gears. In light of this "we need an attitude change, a leadership change". By this Ngcuka did not mean he was resigning: "I am not quitting. I am here to stay," he told delegates. He meant the NPA was to "embark on a new and exciting leadership initiative called the 'fearless executive'". This was a special programme drawn up for the NPA, which would be introduced soon.
The Hefer Commission was established to investigate allegations that Ngcuka may have been an apartheid spy. The commission's report can be found here
Ngcuka was speaking at the NPA's national conference in Johannesburg. He said the Hefer Commission had united the personnel of the NPA. "We emerged stronger also because the people of South Africa witnessed first hand what the allegations were about. The result was that public confidence in the NPA and law enforcement in general increased". He warned that this confidence came at a price: "The price is that our obligations towards the public we are serving have now increased. People are now going to expect more from... the NPA, which is a positive challenge for us".
Ngcuka said the commission had also "exposed and tested the vulnerability of the relationships between the law enforcement agencies". The NPA now had to find ways to rebuild those relationships. The organisation's operations had also been tested in the process, he said. This was an apparent reference to former transport minister Mac Maharaj allegation that someone in NPA's investigating arm, the Scorpions, had leaked information to the media claiming his wife, Zarina, was being investigated for tax invasion. Ngcuka said: "Organisationally we need to re-examine our policies, procedures and processes. If we find any weaknesses, we need to tighten those up". Ngcuka said the organisation was still trying to come to terms with the impact of the commission. "We should determine, without delay, the extent of whatever collateral damage the whole Hefer episode might have caused to the reputation and the capacity of the NPA to meet the demands of its mandate".
Ngcuka said he chose to see the Hefer Commission as a positive opportunity to start afresh. "I am not saying that Hefer was not a painful experience nor that it did not do damage. It was painful and it has caused damage". Ngcuka said in the past the NPA had focused on technical competence. "Our experience during the Hefer Commission and our initial assessment of the impact of the commission on our organisation, clearly shows that the time has come to shift gears. In light of this "we need an attitude change, a leadership change". By this Ngcuka did not mean he was resigning: "I am not quitting. I am here to stay," he told delegates. He meant the NPA was to "embark on a new and exciting leadership initiative called the 'fearless executive'". This was a special programme drawn up for the NPA, which would be introduced soon.
The Hefer Commission was established to investigate allegations that Ngcuka may have been an apartheid spy. The commission's report can be found here
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Zuma and Ngcuka in the spotlight once more
Another Hefer-style public hearing is near-inevitable as Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana pushes ahead with his investigation into Deputy President Jacob Zuma's allegation that Scorpions boss Bulelani Ngcuka abused his powers.
Just days after retired Judge Joos Hefer dismissed charges by Zuma's camp that Ngcuka had been a spy for the apartheid government, the Scorpions boss is facing an investigation that is likely to echo the dramatic scenes played out at Bloemfontein's Justice Building during the spy probe. Judge Hefer found that there was no substance to the spy allegation made against Ngcuka by two of Zuma's most trusted comrades, Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik. The judge did not investigate their allegation that Ngcuka had abused his powers because this was not included in the terms of reference President Thabo Mbeki set for the commission.
Now, on the eve of the country's third democratic general elections, the ANC will be bracing itself for another bruising showdown between Zuma, the party's deputy president, and Ngcuka, one of the party's more senior heavyweights. In an interview with the Cape Times, Mushwana said he would meet Ngcuka this week to discuss Zuma's complaint that the Scorpions boss abused his office at the helm of the elite crime-busting unit as it investigated possible allegations of corruption against him. Now that Judge Hefer had made his findings public, Mushwana was pursuing the case and had studied documents relating to Zuma's complaint to the Public Protector. Although he was not keen on public hearings, which he described as the "agonising feature of the Hefer commission", Mushwana conceded that it would be difficult to hold oral hearings in private. Asked about the likelihood of a public hearing, he said: "We'll have to see. For a start, it's likely to be public. It will take a lot of effort to convince anyone that you can deal with a person of the stature of the deputy president behind closed doors. I don't wish it to go that way, but if it comes to that, then we definitely will have to do that."
Mushwana said his decision about holding oral hearings would depend on Ngcuka's written response to the allegation, but the chances of his investigation being based purely on affidavits were slim, given that he would "not be able to interrogate issues". According to Mushwana, Zuma's complaint was based largely on a statement Ngcuka made at a press conference on August 23 last year. Ngcuka said there was a prima facie case of corruption against Zuma, but that he would not prosecute as the case would not be "winnable" in court. "The deputy president is seriously challenging the use of that phrase. He is saying 'if there is such a case, then prosecute me, otherwise you must be prepared to withdraw the statement'," Mushwana said. Another of Zuma's reasons for his complaint was the alleged leaks by the Scorpions to the media about details of their investigation into his affairs. Third, Zuma was "seriously challenging the basis of the investigations" into his affairs. According to the Scorpions, Zuma was linked to an alleged attempt to solicit a payment of R500 000 a year from French company Thomson-CSF, which won a contract in the arms deal, in exchange for "protection" during the investigation into the deal.
Mushwana said Zuma was arguing that the probe into the arms deal by Mushwana's predecessor, Selby Baqwa, Ngcuka and Auditor-General Shauket Fakie had given no indication that the deputy president should be investigated. "(Zuma) said the conclusion of that investigation was that certain institutions were listed as warranting further investigation. He says he is not one of those institutions listed for further investigation and so now he doesn't... understand what it is that the Scorpions are investigating."
Mushwana said his office would sending Ngcuka a notice of the investigation and "his response will determine whether we should go down that (oral) painful road". On when he was likely to begin the investigation, Mushwana said: "If we decide to go the route of oral hearings, these people will have to have their legal representatives - one can't say exactly when, but from my side I'm almost ready to go."
Ngcuka's spokesperson, Makhosini Nkosi, said the National Prosecuting Authority was "prepared to co-operate with any investigation into (its) running by any agency of government". "We remain steadfast in our belief and assertion that there was never any abuse of office," said Nkosi. "We have nothing to fear and we want this matter to be dealt with speedily so we don't have further disturbances, as was the case when we were defending the spying allegations." Asked to comment on Zuma's complaint about Ngcuka's statement, Nkosi said: "The national director will state his case to the Public Protector - it's not for me to state his case in the press."
Lakela Kaunda, speaking for Zuma, said: "The deputy president submitted his complaint and awaits feedback from the Public Protector and has no comment on the processes or any aspect of the investigation."
# Maharaj and mining magnate Brett Kebble have also filed "abuse of office" complaints with Mushwana.
Source: IoL
Just days after retired Judge Joos Hefer dismissed charges by Zuma's camp that Ngcuka had been a spy for the apartheid government, the Scorpions boss is facing an investigation that is likely to echo the dramatic scenes played out at Bloemfontein's Justice Building during the spy probe. Judge Hefer found that there was no substance to the spy allegation made against Ngcuka by two of Zuma's most trusted comrades, Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik. The judge did not investigate their allegation that Ngcuka had abused his powers because this was not included in the terms of reference President Thabo Mbeki set for the commission.
Now, on the eve of the country's third democratic general elections, the ANC will be bracing itself for another bruising showdown between Zuma, the party's deputy president, and Ngcuka, one of the party's more senior heavyweights. In an interview with the Cape Times, Mushwana said he would meet Ngcuka this week to discuss Zuma's complaint that the Scorpions boss abused his office at the helm of the elite crime-busting unit as it investigated possible allegations of corruption against him. Now that Judge Hefer had made his findings public, Mushwana was pursuing the case and had studied documents relating to Zuma's complaint to the Public Protector. Although he was not keen on public hearings, which he described as the "agonising feature of the Hefer commission", Mushwana conceded that it would be difficult to hold oral hearings in private. Asked about the likelihood of a public hearing, he said: "We'll have to see. For a start, it's likely to be public. It will take a lot of effort to convince anyone that you can deal with a person of the stature of the deputy president behind closed doors. I don't wish it to go that way, but if it comes to that, then we definitely will have to do that."
Mushwana said his decision about holding oral hearings would depend on Ngcuka's written response to the allegation, but the chances of his investigation being based purely on affidavits were slim, given that he would "not be able to interrogate issues". According to Mushwana, Zuma's complaint was based largely on a statement Ngcuka made at a press conference on August 23 last year. Ngcuka said there was a prima facie case of corruption against Zuma, but that he would not prosecute as the case would not be "winnable" in court. "The deputy president is seriously challenging the use of that phrase. He is saying 'if there is such a case, then prosecute me, otherwise you must be prepared to withdraw the statement'," Mushwana said. Another of Zuma's reasons for his complaint was the alleged leaks by the Scorpions to the media about details of their investigation into his affairs. Third, Zuma was "seriously challenging the basis of the investigations" into his affairs. According to the Scorpions, Zuma was linked to an alleged attempt to solicit a payment of R500 000 a year from French company Thomson-CSF, which won a contract in the arms deal, in exchange for "protection" during the investigation into the deal.
Mushwana said Zuma was arguing that the probe into the arms deal by Mushwana's predecessor, Selby Baqwa, Ngcuka and Auditor-General Shauket Fakie had given no indication that the deputy president should be investigated. "(Zuma) said the conclusion of that investigation was that certain institutions were listed as warranting further investigation. He says he is not one of those institutions listed for further investigation and so now he doesn't... understand what it is that the Scorpions are investigating."
Mushwana said his office would sending Ngcuka a notice of the investigation and "his response will determine whether we should go down that (oral) painful road". On when he was likely to begin the investigation, Mushwana said: "If we decide to go the route of oral hearings, these people will have to have their legal representatives - one can't say exactly when, but from my side I'm almost ready to go."
Ngcuka's spokesperson, Makhosini Nkosi, said the National Prosecuting Authority was "prepared to co-operate with any investigation into (its) running by any agency of government". "We remain steadfast in our belief and assertion that there was never any abuse of office," said Nkosi. "We have nothing to fear and we want this matter to be dealt with speedily so we don't have further disturbances, as was the case when we were defending the spying allegations." Asked to comment on Zuma's complaint about Ngcuka's statement, Nkosi said: "The national director will state his case to the Public Protector - it's not for me to state his case in the press."
Lakela Kaunda, speaking for Zuma, said: "The deputy president submitted his complaint and awaits feedback from the Public Protector and has no comment on the processes or any aspect of the investigation."
# Maharaj and mining magnate Brett Kebble have also filed "abuse of office" complaints with Mushwana.
Source: IoL
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Ngcuka was ‘probably never’ a spy-Hefer
National prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka "probably never" acted as an agent for the apartheid government, the Hefer Commission of Inquiry has found. "I have come to the conclusion that he probably never at any time before 1994 acted as an agent for a state security agency," commission chairperson, retired judge Joos Hefer, said in his final report made public yesterday. "... the suspicion which a small number of distrustful individuals harboured against him 14 years ago was the unfortunate result of ill-founded inferences and groundless assumptions".
The commissions report report can be found here.
President Thabo Mbeki, in a letter to Hefer, has accepted the commission's main findings. The judge made no finding as to whether Ngcuka had abused his official powers, saying this part of his brief had been cancelled by the finding that the prosecutions head had probably not been a spy. The two legs of the probe had to be linked, Hefer said. However, he described as "most disturbing" evidence by one of Ngcuka's main accusers - former transport minister Mac Maharaj - about leaks from the prosecuting directorate about a criminal investigation into Maharaj and his wife.
It was beyond doubt that such leaks did occur and it was highly likely that the guilty party was within Ngcuka's office, Hefer said. "Such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated," the report states. "Months have elapsed since Mr Maharaj was questioned by members of the investigating directorate (Scorpions) and, although Ngcuka has assured me that the investigation has not been completed, no charges have yet been preferred either against Maharaj or against his wife. In the meantime, press reports about the allegations kept appearing. In a country such as ours where human dignity is a basic constitutional value and every person is presumed to be innocent until he or she is found guilty, this is wholly unacceptable".
Although matters "do not appear to be what they should be" in Ngcuka's office, Maharaj's complaint in this regard was beyond the commission's terms of reference, Hefer said.
Source: Polity
The commissions report report can be found here.
President Thabo Mbeki, in a letter to Hefer, has accepted the commission's main findings. The judge made no finding as to whether Ngcuka had abused his official powers, saying this part of his brief had been cancelled by the finding that the prosecutions head had probably not been a spy. The two legs of the probe had to be linked, Hefer said. However, he described as "most disturbing" evidence by one of Ngcuka's main accusers - former transport minister Mac Maharaj - about leaks from the prosecuting directorate about a criminal investigation into Maharaj and his wife.
It was beyond doubt that such leaks did occur and it was highly likely that the guilty party was within Ngcuka's office, Hefer said. "Such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated," the report states. "Months have elapsed since Mr Maharaj was questioned by members of the investigating directorate (Scorpions) and, although Ngcuka has assured me that the investigation has not been completed, no charges have yet been preferred either against Maharaj or against his wife. In the meantime, press reports about the allegations kept appearing. In a country such as ours where human dignity is a basic constitutional value and every person is presumed to be innocent until he or she is found guilty, this is wholly unacceptable".
Although matters "do not appear to be what they should be" in Ngcuka's office, Maharaj's complaint in this regard was beyond the commission's terms of reference, Hefer said.
Source: Polity
Tuesday, January 6, 2004
1 216 get new homes in Durban
Housing Minister Brigitte Mabandla officially opened a slums clearance project in the eThekwini (Durban) municipality on Tuesday. Keys were handed to some of the 1 216 new homeowners located in the Welbedacht West area. It is one of six main areas that stand to benefit from the slum clearance housing project, which began in 2001 and has, to date, cost almost R218m to implement. "The settlements selected have been earmarked for complete relocation for a variety of reasons such as the threat of flooding, major environmental health risks, unstable land, fire risks and the size of the settlement which may be too small to be feasible for an upgrade project," said Mabandla.
She said project beneficiaries would receive their subsidies from the department of housing, as well as a substantial top-up from eThekwini municipality to ensure that adequate levels of service - such as tarred bus routes, sewer reticulation, water and electricity to each household - were provided. "Houses have been constructed in terms of the housing department's minimum norms and standards, which provide for a 30m² house," said Mabandla. All projects with the exception of Namibia Stop 8 in Inanda were at an advanced stage of construction.
The 10 869 houses and sites was anticipated to be a three-year construction programme, with the construction of houses and services almost 60& complete. Welbedacht East and West, as well as Parkgate, are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2004.
Meanwhile, eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba said his council had committed itself to funding services and had contributed about R70m to achieve this. "The council has pursued a policy of bridge financing the development to ensure rapid delivery of housing and services," said Mlaba at Tuesday's handover. He said that, according to the eThekwini council's informal settlement programme, proposed housing interventions had been divided into four categories. These were in-situ upgrade; relocation; partial in-situ upgrade and partial relocation; and approved in-situ upgrade housing projects.
In phase one of the slums clearance project, a total of 3 500 informal households will need to be relocated from 10 settlements.
Source: News 24
She said project beneficiaries would receive their subsidies from the department of housing, as well as a substantial top-up from eThekwini municipality to ensure that adequate levels of service - such as tarred bus routes, sewer reticulation, water and electricity to each household - were provided. "Houses have been constructed in terms of the housing department's minimum norms and standards, which provide for a 30m² house," said Mabandla. All projects with the exception of Namibia Stop 8 in Inanda were at an advanced stage of construction.
The 10 869 houses and sites was anticipated to be a three-year construction programme, with the construction of houses and services almost 60& complete. Welbedacht East and West, as well as Parkgate, are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2004.
Meanwhile, eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba said his council had committed itself to funding services and had contributed about R70m to achieve this. "The council has pursued a policy of bridge financing the development to ensure rapid delivery of housing and services," said Mlaba at Tuesday's handover. He said that, according to the eThekwini council's informal settlement programme, proposed housing interventions had been divided into four categories. These were in-situ upgrade; relocation; partial in-situ upgrade and partial relocation; and approved in-situ upgrade housing projects.
In phase one of the slums clearance project, a total of 3 500 informal households will need to be relocated from 10 settlements.
Source: News 24
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