Judge stands firm against corruption report pressure

Mbeki's office has denied that he ever received Judge Ronnie Pillay's report, which Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela claimed had been forwarded to him. Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said Mbeki was not given the full report last year, only part one which dealt with administrative issues. The second part dealing with allegations of corruption was not given to the President. Ratshitanga said Balindlela should refer the report to law enforcement agencies. 'If there is a judiciary inquiry which pronounces on allegations, those allegations have to be given to law enforcement agencies for them to corroborated,' Ratshitanga said. Full Daily Dispatch report

Judge Pillay has vowed not to bow to pressure to publicly discuss his report. Pillay was responding to threats by Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile, former Economic Affairs MEC Enoch Godongwana, ANC Eastern Cape chairman Stone Sizani and former Eastern Cape Development Corporation head Mcebisi Jonas that they would seek legal action against him if their demands were not met, says a report in the Daily Dispatch. Pillay denied any knowledge of a letter the four had reportedly sent to him. 'It would be bad of me to tell the media what's happening on my desk (anyway),' he said. The Sunday Times reported the four politicians had written to Pillay demanding confirmation that the damning findings are indeed his, and if so, that he retract them with immediate effect. Resistance or failure to do so would result in them approaching the courts to have their names cleared, the group said. They reportedly gave Pillay until noon on Tuesday to respond. The allegations, the four said, 'are untrue, defamatory in the extreme and constitute a gross abuse of the powers your commission was given'. In his report, which was leaked to the Daily Dispatch last week, Pillay implicated the politicians as being party to massive corruption. Stofile, Godongwana and Sizani are accused of 'siphoning off' R200m for personal gain. Full Daily Dispatch report

Former Judge Willem Heath says there is no legal basis for their threats. SABC News quotes Heath as saying 'if it's a properly constituted commission, which it is, the commissioner is not only entitled to bring out negative findings about the people involved but he is also obliged to do that and therefore in law, what he has done is fully justified. If they want to take him to court for defamation, they will fight an uphill battle because there's no legal basis on which they can make the allegation that it's defamatory'. He says they cannot succeed in getting the court to make an order against the commissioner. Full SABC News report

Stofile said he rejected the report's findings 'with contempt', says a Mail & Guardian Online report. 'I just want to assure the people of the Eastern Cape that just as previous attempts to tarnish my image failed, even this one will be exposed for the political conspiracy it is,' he said. The Daily Dispatch said the report showed how Stofile, a former Premier of the Eastern Cape, and the two other senior ANC politicians and their families had benefited from an 'orchestrated siphoning off' of nearly R200m in public funds. The report said another R250m simply disappeared form the province's public coffers over a decade. Full Mail & Guardian Online report Full Daily Dispatch report

Details contained in the report are now emerging. Among these is how a multi-million housing project collapsed because of irregular awarding of tenders - resulting in protracted litigation processes. The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality initiated the Motherwell Tjoks project in 2004 at a cost of R81.1m, says the Daily Dispatch. It however failed to deliver the promised 2 943 low cost houses after several flawed tender processes, including the appointment of companies on an unfair basis, overpricing of materials and lack of skills and expertise. This was after the Rapid Infrastructural Development Agency (Rida) awarded the tender to two contractors who had both failed to achieve a minimum technical score of 70%. Rida was meant to be the provincial government's vehicle of implementation and monitoring agent. The commission further details how Rida disregarded recommendations of technical advisers and issued the award without obtaining the necessary procurement committee decision. Full Daily Dispatch report

Pillay found that the Premier's Fund was never audited, nor could he find any documentation in support of payments made from it. The fund was established in 1999 following an agreement between the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, the Office of the Premier and the Department of Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism. And although funds were disbursed at Stofile's discretion, Pillay found 'no transparent procurement process was applied when funds were disbursed', according to the Daily Dispatch. The commission found that between April 1999 and December 2003, nearly R5m was handed out to persons and entities, but in some instances it could not establish on what basis funds were disbursed and who the beneficiaries were. Of the identified beneficiaries, two were the Triple Trust Organisation and the Anti-Poverty Foundation, both linked to Stofile's wife. Together, they received a total of R760 000. Full Daily Dispatch report