Net closing on cabinet ministers and other Sodi beneficiaries

While the arrest of senior government officials and businessman Edwin Sodi has been welcomed as “a step in restoring confidence in the Commission of Inquiry Into State Capture and law enforcement agencies”, experts on Wednesday said they were hopeful that the net would soon be closing in on all those implicated, including cabinet ministers.

The Special Investigating Unit and Hawks have arrested suspects in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal KZN) and in Pretoria – while at least one suspect is another still on the run in KZN.

Six suspects will appear in in court in Bloemfontein on Friday.

In his testimony at the inquiry this week, Sodi, implicated in the dodgy R255 million Free State asbestos audit tender, testified before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that:

• He paid or “donated” millions to senior ANC politicians who included state security deputy minister Zizi Kodwa, employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi, communications deputy minister Pinky Kekana, with health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize allegedly getting the biggest “donation” of R6.5 million.
• His company Blackhead received contracts in excess of R1 billion over 10 years and paid millions to senior civil servants and ANC leaders.
• ANC secretary-general and former Free State premier, Ace Magashule, was among people who allegedly scored between R1 million and R10 million each from the Blackhead-Diamond Hill JV deal.
• His partner Ignatius Mpambani, who was gunned down in Sandton in 2017, negotiated the asbestos contract in the Free State.

While welcoming the arrests as “positive news”, Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis, said he was hopeful that the net would soon be closing in on implicated politicians.

“I am quite surprised that there are no politicians among those arrested. Sodi mentioned politicians as an essential party of the syndicates that managed to steal this tender.

“I am little surprised not to see their names among the arrests. That is a little disappointing, but let me see how this unfolds, because the initial AM (which could stand for Ace Magashule) are all over those documents.

Lewis said the case would not be complete without the implicated politicians being held to account, but that the current number of arrests augured well for the commission and law enforcement agencies.

Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution executive director Lawson Naidoo said: “The arrests send a good signal and this is a very welcome development. This signals a process of the beginning to restore credibility in the Zondo Commission and confidence in the law enforcement sector.

“This is just the start, because there are a lot more people implicated. We would be interested to see the charges to be presented to them on Friday. There should be sufficient evidence to take the matter to court and secure conviction.”

Naidoo said the change in regulations governing the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, enabled Zondo to easily share information with law enforcement agencies, “making it possible for investigations to be completed and arrests effected”.

Parliament also to investigate

Meanwhile the cabinet ministers mentioned as multi-million-rand beneficiaries of Sodi’s generosity, could soon find themselves hauled before the parliamentary ethics committee for failure to declare payments in the register of members’ interests.

According to Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip Natasha Mazzone, the party planned referring the matter of the payments to parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests.

Mazzone said the DA ran “an extensive check of parliament’s register of members’ interests for the period these payments were made and none of the individuals mentioned during Sodi’s session with the commission, declared such payments”.

She said: “This is a direct contravention of Section 5 of Parliament’s Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interests regarding Conflict of Financial or Business Interests.

“Section 5.1.1 clearly states that a member must ‘resolve any financial or business conflict of interest in which he or she is involved in his or her capacity as a public representative, in favour of the public interest; and 5.1.2 always declare such interest, and where appropriate, the Member should recuse himself or herself from any forum considering or deciding on the matter’.”

She added: “While there is little doubt that these members of parliament will offer all manner of excuses to explain away their dirty hands, the fact is that if their dealings with Sodi were irreproachable, they would have had no qualms declaring these payments. As it stands, none of the excuses they can come up with will suffice.

“The ethics committee is duty-bound to investigate this matter and should do so urgently. The DA expects more than a mere slap on the wrist – as is the current trend – for these perpetrators of dark deeds, if South Africa is ever to wipe corruption completely from its slate.”

brians@citizen.co.za

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