Issued by: The Office of the Executive Deputy President
Holomisa, in a letter to Minister Stella Sigcau dated 6 April 1998, states as follows.
"... Deputy President Thabo Mbeki is reported in the media to have hastened to intervene in the raging dispute of the ... Aventura ... land claims."
"... observers ... started to wonder why the matter was brought to the attention of the Deputy President ... instead of referral to the Land Claims Court. Little did we know that there already existed warning signals of conflict of interests which necessitated his personal intervention".
The Deputy President did not `hasten to intervene' in the Aventura dispute. The Deputy President was brought into this matter by the Applicants in the cases, who cited him and the Government of South Africa, amongst others, as Respondents.
The Deputy President, as Holomisa should know, has no choice over when, how and by whom he is cited in court proceedings.
All the parties to the matters, not only the Deputy President, decided to settle the matter. Two judges of the Land Claims Court ruled that unless certain changes were made to the proposed settlement, the Court would not accept it. All the parties accepted the Court's proposals and the settlement was made an order of Court.
The matter was therefore referred to the Land Claims Court, as Holomisa would have realised had he had any intention of presenting the true facts in this matter.
The Aventura bidders were never parties to these matters and were certainly never consulted by the Deputy President's Office in relation to these matters.
Mrs Zanele Mbeki, Ms Bongiwe Njobe-Mbuli and Adv Mojanku Gumbi are not part of the Phalafala Leisure Consortium, as alleged by Holomisa.
Mrs Mbeki, Ms Njobe-Mbuli and Adv Gumbi are founder members of the Womens Development Bank, a not-for-profit association which empowers largely rural women by giving them access to finance. An organisation totally separate from the Bank is the one that is part of Phalafala.
The suggestion that the Deputy President and senior government officials acted with an improper motive in dealing with the Aventura matters is without any basis whatsoever and is strongly rejected. No right thinking person could ever make such allegations considering the facts in this matter.
Holomisa can give better testimony about the corruption prevalent in the former Bantustans as he was himself part of those structures.
Issued by the Communications Unit: Office of the Deputy President Contact: Nthabiseng Rantau 082 570 5503
9 April 1998