ANC MP ‘misled Parliament’ claim

A MEMBER of Parliament and a towering figure in the legal fraternity has come under scrutiny for allegedly misrepresenting his stake in a liquidation company that has been awarded lucrative contracts.

Professor Mathole Motshekga declared that he owned a 20% stake in a BEE liquidation company, Sechaba Trust. However, he owned a 54% stake, according documents seen by Weekend Argus.

Sechaba Trust was recently awarded the liquidation of commercial airline operator Comair, IT company EOH and African Global Operations, formerly known as Bosasa.

According to the company’s share register, Motshekga has been a major shareholder since 2011. But in the 2017, 2018 and 2019 parliamentary members’ interest register Motshekga said he owned 20%. In 2020 and 2021 he didn’t declare the actual shareholding but listed himself as a director.

This was revealed in leaked emails where an investigator from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) posed questions to the Master of the Courts on Motshekga’s shareholding.

The unit is probing allegations of maladministration, corruption and fraud at the Office of the Master of the High Court nationwide.

“Since the beginning, MP Motshekga has only ever declared his interest at 20% of Sechaba Trust. This is patently untrue and misleads Parliament, Sars (SA Revenue Service) and the courts, in fact it is tantamount to perjury,” the email read. “On inspection, the share register reflects Motshekga as the majority shareholder in Sechaba Trust … the share register reflects that Motshekga owns 54% of

Sechaba Trust and is in fact the de facto majority shareholder in the largest liquidation group on the panels of both Sars and at the Master’s Office.

“In pursuing the members’ declarations, Motshekga also declares only R20 000 as other income over a span of years,“the investigator said.

“Whilst he is in fact a 54% of Sechaba, Motshekga surely would have received healthy dividends considering that Sechaba Trust reflects that they conduct business amounting to be between R50 million and R80m per annum,” said the investigator, “Mr Motshekga would earn a dividend of at least R5.4million per annum, yet this does not reflect at all in any of his parliamentary declarations.”

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the unit did not investigate people but processes, and that this matter fell within the proclamation signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to probe

the Masters of the High Court.

Motshekga told Weekend Argus the disclosure lapses were unintentional as there had been “some changes”.

“The people at Sechaba will be able to explain. Right now, I’m too busy in politics, I don’t have time to be going there to check the records as to what happened at what stage … there have been changes over time and to answer that question one has to take the changes into account,” he said.

Motshekga vehemently denied any wrongdoing. “I’m a lawyer by profession. I understand the law and I’m a

lawmaker. I will never do anything contrary to the law.”

Another director at Sechaba Trust, Cloete Murray, said the allegations against Motshekga were incorrect. “He declared his shares in Sechaba from day one, so I don’t know where you get your stories, but it is factually incorrect,” Murray said.

Bekizwe Nkosi, co-chairperson of Parliament’s ethics committee, said: “The joint committee … can neither confirm or deny this matter. As a general principle, the committee does not comment on allegations.”