Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson named in kickback probe arranging purchase of R18m game farm for 'disadvantaged women'
Pearlie Joubert, The Times of Johannesburg: 16 June, -- Mrs Tina Joemat-Pettersson, the minster of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, is being investigated for allegedly taking a kickback for arranging the purchase of an R18-million game farm for disadvantaged women.
Joemat-Pettersson, who was an MEC in the Northern Cape at the time, was allegedly paid R100000 for her efforts in closing the purchase of Sunset Game Lodge. The farm, outside Douglas, 100km west of Kimberley, was bought by the state for more than 100 women from the province.
The farm was bought and registered in the name of the Siyancuma Women Game Farming Pty Ltd. The name was later changed to Educated Risk Investments, then to Umbani Investments.
The money, according to an affidavit by Monica du Toit, the lawyer who facilitated the 2006 deal, was paid into Joemat-Pettersson's private Nedbank account. Du Toit describes the payment as a reward for the minister's moeite (efforts).
This week it emerged that Joemat-Pettersson and Du Toit are the focus of an investigation by the Asset Forfeiture Unit and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (the Hawks) has also joined the case.
Du Toit's statement is being "kept under lock and key", according to three independent sources close to the investigation.
Viljoen Mothibi, head of the province's department of agriculture, said the farm, Sunset Game Lodge, was bought for R18-million.
R12-million was paid from the department's "innovation fund" and the other R6-million by the then Department of Land Affairs through the "land reform for agricultural development grant".
"This farm was bought with the state's money, and we paid R18-million for the farm," Mothibi said.
However, the seller told the Sunday Times that he received only R16-million for the farm.
Contacted this week about the R100,000 allegedly paid to Joemat-Pettersson, Du Toit refused to comment. As to the sale, she said she "can't remember" how much was paid to the owner, Andre Lategan.
Du Toit said: "It was such a long time ago, I can't remember those details. I don't remember the purchase price and I don't remember what we paid Lategan. The whole transaction took a long time and happened a long time ago."
A visibly annoyed Du Toit then asked: "Why are you looking for a story where there is nothing? This was a private sale to a private company of a private farm. There is nothing here."
But Lategan remembers that although the agreed purchase price was R18-million, he received only R16-million.
He said that after "problems" with getting the full amount, he decided to just "walk away".
Speaking from his home in Magersfontein, Lategan said the "papers [the deed of transfer] were signed for R18-million, but Monica [du Toit], who put the whole deal together, told me that they [the rural women] needed capital.
"Even after we agreed on the amount, they told me that I'm asking too much and said they needed capital for running the place.
"The R18-million included the game and furniture of the lodge and everything on the farm. There were problems with receiving the money. I was first paid an amount of R3-million. Then a whole month went by and they were pressuring me and saying I'm asking too much money.
"They then said I should take the game [off the farm] because they would prefer R2-million cash. I was then paid a second payment of R13-million, I think. I didn't take the game.
"In the end, I made the decision to take R16-million and walk away.
"I was not aware that they actually received R18-million from the department. I was under the impression that they only managed to raise R16-million."
The farm was bought and registered in the name of the Siyancuma Women Game Farming Pty Ltd. The name was later changed to Educated Risk Investments, then to Umbani Investments. When the farm was sold last week to a local farmer, it was again called Siyancuma Women Game Farming.
The new owner of the farm, Theuns Engelbrecht of Douglas, paid R19,341,600, according to the deed of sale.
SAPS Hawks unit Capt Paul Ramaloko, a spokesman for the Hawks, told the Sunday Times that the unit had joined the investigation. "We are involved in investigating fraud and corruption charges surrounding the sale of the Sunset Game Lodge," he said.
The SIU's interest in the investigation is understood to go much deeper than Du Toit's alleged payment to Joemat-Pettersson.
Two independent sources close to the investigation confirmed that Joemat-Pettersson and Du Toit were under investigation as part of a bigger investigation into the entire R18-million deal.
Boy Ndala, a spokesman for the SIU, said: "The SIU is looking into the matter as part of its [ongoing] investigation into the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform's Land Reform Programme."
http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2013/06/16/minister-named-in-kickback-probe1
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