May 1, 2010 9:48 PM | By SIMPIWE PILISO and BUDDY NAIDU
Secret ANC documents reveal that the ruling party owns a majority stake in Thebe Investment Corporation - an empowerment shareholder in cellular network giant Vodacom.
WORRIED: Trevor Manuel exhibits some concern about the growth of Thebe and the effect it could have on the image of the ANC
'The area that the trust covers must be defined in extremely narrow terms, such that any profits received are donated to the ANC'
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Thebe has repeatedly denied links with the party, but the Sunday Times has established that Thebe was set up as an ANC investment company as far back as 1992, when a trust, the Batho Batho Trust, was established "to receive dividends" for the party.
Documents which detail the ANC's involvement with Thebe form part of a massive collection of forgotten letters and confidential reports recently salvaged from a neglected storeroom at Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape.
The university's Liberation Archive was this week placed off limits by the ANC following stories in last week's Sunday Times on some of the private correspondence it contains.
Documents in the archive, which the Sunday Times obtained before the ban was imposed, detail how the ANC created Thebe, through a trust, "for the sole purpose of receiving dividends" from the investment company.
One of these documents, The Income Generating Sector of our Movement, which the ANC declined to comment on this week, was drafted by the party's leadership in 1992.
This report drafted by the ANC's heads of Treasury and presented to the party's former president, Nelson Mandela, after the ANC's national conference in July 1991, highlighted how profits and dividends generated from businesses and shares acquired by Thebe would be "donated" to the party.
To date, one of Thebe's biggest transactions was securing a 0.84% shareholding in Vodacom, which is worth over R1-billion.
On Friday, Vodacom spokesman Richard Boorman said: "According to the assessment conducted on Thebe, as part of the selection process, it was not established that Thebe was an investment company for the ANC."
Over the years, the trust's ownership structure has changed from being wholly owned by the party to now include investors Absa Capital, Sanlam and Umhlomulo Equity Participation, an employee equity participation scheme company.
Thebe furthermore has significant stakes in major companies, including Shell SA Refinery, Altech Netstar, Khaya FM, and Combined Motor Holdings.
Recently the ANC has come under fire over its other investment company, Chancellor House, which has a 25% stake in Hitachi Power Africa.
Hitachi was recently awarded a R3.7-billion contract to provide boilers to Eskom's Medupi and Kusile power stations.
Thebe chairman Vuyisile Khanyile has denied that the company has a "business relationship" with the ANC.
"To the best of my knowledge Thebe has never made a financial donation to the ANC in its lifetime."
But the 1991 report, circulated among the party's leadership and approved by the National Finance Committee in January 1992, listed Khanyile among the list of directors selected by the ANC to run Thebe.
At the time, Khanyile was the head of the ANC's finance department.
The document also states that Thebe would function under an independent board of directors answerable to the Batho Batho Trust.
"The sole purpose of the trust is to meet once or twice a year to receive reports and dividends from Thebe," the report reads.
It also shows that the ANC Treasury proposed that the eight trustees would include: Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Cyril Ramaphosa, Thomas Nkobi, Alfred Nzo, Steve Tshwete, Thabo Mbeki and a chairman. A list of suggested directors included: Enos Mabusa, controversial mining magnate Mzi Khumalo, and Khanyile.
The report also stressed that "in the trust's documents the area that the trust covers must be defined in extremely narrow terms, such that any profits received are donated to the ANC".
On Friday, ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu declined to comment. Later, the party's other spokesman Brian Sokutu referred questions to Khanyile.
"Questions on Thebe are best left to its CEO and board to answer," he said.
Yesterday, when asked whether the Batho Batho Trust contributes financially to the ANC, trustee and KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Sbongeseni Dlomo asked: "Why is that important to you? Why don't you ask me whether the trust contributes for a young black boy to go to school."
He also said he was not aware of the documents in the Sunday Times' possession and therefore could not discuss the reasons why the trust was established.
Dlomo said as far as he was aware, the trust was a community-based organisation created to address the needs and development of black people.
He added that there was nothing in the trust's documents that stated that the ANC was one of its beneficiaries.
According to Thebe's website, the company was established in 1992 by the Batho Batho Trust, which was the sole shareholder. Mandela was listed as chairman.
Khanyile said the trust invested R100 000 to establish Thebe. "In the recent past Thebe has begun the practice of paying a modest dividend to its shareholders. Thebe expects to continue this practice that it has started," he said.
The Batho Batho Trust, which owns more than 51% of Thebe, has already raked in millions of rands in dividends from shares held in more than 41 companies.
Just last week, one of Thebe's subsidiaries, Thebe Tourism, acquired a 25% stake in Compass Group, one of the largest food services companies in the country.
In a surprise move in July 2008, Vodacom announced Thebe and the Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH) as its empowerment partners. The controversial selection was made after several ANC-connected consortia began fighting for the lucrative R7.5-billion deal.
Boorman added that Thebe and the Royal Bafokeng Holdings invested equity of R540-million for their stakes in Vodacom. "At the time, their stakes were valued at R3.3-billion (combined)," said Boorman.
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Comments by Sonny
The ANC will rake in everything before it goes down!
These will not be any bread crumbs left for the poor and needy in this country!
Vodacom service has gone to the dogs in the past year!
How clearer do we want the writing against the wall?
Did Mbeki have more pananche or at least style?
Even though he committed genocide with his denialism!
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