BDFM Online
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
NATIONAL Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete and two named cabinet ministers yesterday denied that they had a conflict of interest despite owning shares in companies with a stake in the R23bn Gautrain project.
The parliamentary register of members' interests shows that Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula declared a "directorship or partnership" in Dyambu Holdings, a broad-based women's investment group which has a 3% option to buy into Bombela's black empowerment arm, Strategic Partners Group.
Mbete also declared an undisclosed number of shares in Dyambu, while Education Minister Naledi Pandor declared shares in Black Management Forum Investments (BMFI), which has a stake in Bombela via Strategic Partners Group.
Strategic Partners Group, Bombardier, Bouygues and Murray & Roberts each have a 25% share in Gautrain's winning bidder Bombela. Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, who was also named in a weekend newspaper as having shares in the consortium, yesterday issued a statement denying that she owned shares in Dyambu. "I hold no shares in the consortium that is building the high-speed Gautrain and I do not stand to benefit from the Gautrain project in any way," she said.
Mapisa-Nqakula's spokesman, Mike Ramagoma, said yesterday that the minister could not possibly have had a conflict of interest, as Dyambu had not yet exercised its option to buy shares in the project.
However, according to a statement released by the Gautrain project, Dyambu Holdings has a 3% call option to buy shares in Strategic Partners Group, which means if it exercises this option it will own 0,75% of the equity in Bombela.
If it exercises its option, Dyambu will have a 0,3% stake in the civil joint venture and the electrical and mechanical joint venture, where 75% of the money for the project will be spent. Pandor has insisted that as an ordinary shareholder of BMFI, she would have had no influence on the company.
When asked whether Pandor had been present when the cabinet approved the project last year or whether she had declared her interest in BMFI before the vote, her spokesman, Lunga Ngqengelele, declined to answer, referring the question to the government spokesman or secretary to the cabinet, saying it involved "cabinet processes".
The Democratic Alliance (DA) said yesterday it would ask incoming auditor-general Terence Nombembe to conduct a special investigation into possible conflicts of interest by the ministers and Mbete.
DA MP Stuart Farrow said the potential conflicts of interest and possible contravention of any laws or codes of conduct under the Public Finance Management Act needed to be investigated urgently. Parliament's ethics committee would also be asked to check on affected members' declarations of interests.
"An investigation is the only way to clear up the doubts that have been created so that the project can move forward without yet another cloud hanging over it," Farrow said.
Dyambu is led by Hilda Ndude, a former ANC Women's League national executive committee member who was involved with OrlyFunt, a former empowerment partner of the late Brett Kebble. Board members include Jean Ngubane, a former head of Rand Water, and Vusi Khanyile, chairman of Thebe