Ministerial+business+links,+business+spouses,+Terreblanche,+Mtshali,+Sindy

Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, December 17, 2006 //Edition 1//
=End ministerial business links, say analysts=

//Mud-slinging is preventing the real debate on how to ensure cabinet stays squeaky clean in future//


 * Christelle Terreblanche**

After a week of mud-slinging over politicians allegedly benefiting from the Gautrain project, calls have been for a serious debate on whether cabinet ministers and their spouses should have any business interests at all.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's office yesterday denied claims that her husband, former prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka, had "more than just a hand-full of shares" in a major BEE partner to the consortium that won the bid to construct the R23 billion Gautrain.

Her spokesperson, Thabang Chiloane, said she had therefore no need to recuse herself from the cabinet meeting that approved the project in December last year.

Construction company Basil Read also jumped in to put out the fires by stating that the company had sold its 30 percent share in BEE partner BR-iLima in August 2005, well before Ngcuka became a shareholder and chairman of its board. It claimed it had no interests in the project's winning consortium.

Indications that Ngcuka stood to benefit from the Gautrain deal surfaced in a detailed report on the complicated shareholdings of companies involved in the controversial rapid rail link, released in the SA Communist Party's online letter, Umsebenzi, this week. The report sought to refute President Thabo Mbeki's angry dismissal last week of suggestions that senior ANC figures are benefiting from the project through various shareholdings.

This has since led to an escalating tripartite alliance tit-for-tat in the media with allegations that Cosatu and the Communist Party had racist motives against those who acquire wealth through BEE.

On Friday Blade Nzimande, the SACP general secretary, said the declaration of interest code of ethics no longer goes far enough to immunise those at the helm of government against the "creeping danger of parasitic capitalism" and its associated problem of corruption.

He told the Young Communist League congress that it was time to question ministers' interests in big business.

The ANC Youth League subsequently said government ministers with business interests should resign. A number of independent analysts have since stressed that a serious debate was needed on whether ministers and their spouses' interests in big business should be allowed - rather than the racist mud-slinging that has erupted.

Although the SACP document made no mention that Ngcuka was married to the deputy president, it detailed his part in the intricate web of companies and shares around the winning Gautrain Strategic Partnership Group and the Bombela consortium that will build the railway line between Johannesburg and Tshwane.

Donny Gouveia, Basil Read's financial director, yesterday denied that it was a shareholder in iLima (a winning BEE partner) and denied media reports that said the winning foreign construction bidder, the French Bouygues Travaux Publics, was the parent company of Basil Read. "Basil Read does not have any part in the Gautrain project," Gouveia told The Sunday Independent.

"Bouygues have a 14 percent shareholding in Basil Read and that is the only link to Bombela. The only role we have is purely as a sub-contractor to Bombela. We are not a shareholder or interested party in Bombela."

But despite no indication of corruption or wrongdoing on the part of Mlambo-Ngcuka, a number of questions remain over the links that generally seem to blur the line between big capital and the state.

Asked for comment, Jeremy Cronin, the chairperson of parliament's transport committee and deputy general secretary of the SACP, said yesterday that while no one is talking of "encrypted faxes and backhanders" in the Gautrain deals, it shows that the needs of the poor tend to be marginalised by the political and business networks.

"What we've got here is a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship between big foreign nationals and established white companies like Murray and Roberts, Group Five and Basil Read, as well as a new emerging economic elite with close connections to the government," he said, stressing that this tends to lead to decisions that do not take into account the needs of the poor.

Cronin's committee was vehemently opposed to the Gautrain project, which needed a massive cash injection from the government after its R7 billion budget spiralled to more than R20 billion by mid-2005, a third of the cost of the arms deal. "The corruption stories tend to focus on whether one group of capitalists had an unfair advantage using illicit means, and that should be smoked out," Cronin said.

"But even if another consortium won the bid, you may have had the same incestuous sort of BEE beneficiaries and relationships, resulting in huge amounts of money spent on projects which seem to sideline both the declared policy of government and the prioritisation of the poor."

Political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said while the ANC commendably have a task team that is looking at the possibility of restricting business deals for senior politicians, there was a need for serious debate rather than the mud-slinging of the past week over perceptions.

"The manner in which [ANC leaders] are engaging with the Gautrain saga is problematic and the debate we should be having, which the ANC does not want to have, is whether cabinet ministers should have any business interests at all," said Matshiqi.

Judith February, an analyst at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, agreed, saying that this should be debated seriously "because we have seen so many breaches of the codes of ethics and the ministerial handbook".

"The question is now, are you creating a situation where people have got themselves in situations of conflict of interests."

Allegations last week that education minister, home affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Baleka Mbete, the speaker in parliament, stood to gain from the Gautrain project were denied by the government.


 * From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3597324**

=Spouses who have made it big in business=


 * THOKOZANI MTSHALI and CHRISTELLE TERREBLANCHE**

Allegations that politicians stand to benefit from the R23 billion Gautrain project have been denied by the cabinet and the ANC. Yet perceptions persist that multibillion-rand deals are enriching well-connected individuals.

Members of the executive have to declare their interests and benefits in accordance with the Executive Members' Ethics Act and the Ministerial Handbook, but the shares of members' partners are declared only in a confidential register.

The following is a list of spouses of ministers and premiers who have been successful in business, but whose assets remain confidential:


 * Bulelani Ngcuka:** Ex-director of public prosecutions and husband of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the deputy president. Ngcuka has been alleged to be a potential beneficiary from the Gautrain project through his company's 51 percent empowerment share in Basil Read, a construction company that is part of the Gautrain strategic partnership.


 * Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya:** Wife of Zola Skweyiya, the social development minister. She has been in the spotlight over controversial deals involving people such as Sandi Majali of Imvume Management. She is the CEO of Fikza Investment Holdings and the chairperson of WeSizwe Platinum Ltd and Aflease Gold and Uranium Resources. She sits on the boards of more than 10 companies.


 * Nomusa Mufamadi:** Wife of Sydney Mufamadi, the provincial and local government minister, is an executive director of the South African Oil Company, which was linked to the controversial "Oilgate" scandal involving Imvume Management.


 * Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula:** The home affairs minister is the wife of Charles Nqakula, the safety and security minister. She is a founder member of Dyambu Holdings, which now has a stake in the Gautrain project. She says she has withdrawn from the company.


 * Nambitha Stofile:** She is the wife of Makhenkesi Stofile, the sports and recreation minister. She became involved with several companies in the Eastern Cape while her husband was premier there. Her Eastern Cape-based anti-poverty foundation has been implicated in a Nigerian oil scandal.


 * Wendy Luhabe:** She is the wife of Mbhazima Shilowa, the Gauteng premier. Luhabe is one of the founders of Wiphold, a women's empowerment company that has been involved in numerous multimillion-rand deals. She also chairs Alliance Capital, and sits on the International Marketing Council.


 * Andrew Hendricks:** He is the husband of Lindiwe Hendricks, the water affairs and forestry minister. He is the director of SeaVuna, a joint venture between Vuna and Sea Harvest. His wife holds shares in two fishing companies, Phambili and Vuna. They also have a trawler, the R120 million Harvest Lindiwe.


 * Sharif Pandor:** He is married to Naledi Pandor, the education minister, and is the chairperson of Ikamva Investment Holdings, a BEE company that has shares in Aucor Auctioneers. Questions were asked last year about this company's alleged involvement in the sale of a state-owned property.


 * Bridgette Radebe:** The wife of Jeff Radebe, the transport minister. Radebe is the chief executive officer of Mmakau Mining, a company that specialises in deep-level mining. She is the sister of Patrice Motsepe, a Pretoria-based mining magnate.


 * Zanele Mbeki:** The wife of President Thabo Mbeki is a trustee of several boards of organisations that promote development. She is founder of the Women Development of SA, which specialises in loans to small businesses run by women.


 * From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3597314**

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