Gold Fields should play open cards over allegations of corruption surrounding Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)
Allegations of corruption at the gold mine company, Gold Fields with its Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) deal must be exposed and the Freedom Front Plus will be asking the Hawks to investigate the allegations and to bring the guilty parties to court, Adv. Anton Alberts, the Freedom Front Plus' parliamentary spokesperson on trade and industry says.
According to recent media reports, Gold Fields' board decided not to take the recommendations of an independent investigation into an empowerment deal in 2010 further.
The findings of an independent investigation by an American firm, Paul Weiss, will also not be reported in an official report of the company.
Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, former chairperson of Gold Fields, earlier this year said that the government had forced a list of preferred candidates for this empowerment transaction down the throats of Gold Fields.
Adv. Alberts says it just once again underscores that BEE is nothing other than ideological nonsense which ensures access to the government's money trough and enriches the same powerful and empowered people over and over in a corrupt manner under the guise of empowerment.
"BEE is merely a smoke screen to plunder the state coffers and the FF Plus will be asking the Hawks to investigate the transaction. If there was corruption, the parties involved should be prosecuted," Adv. Alberts says.
The list of proposed candidates which the government had apparently handed to Gold Fields for the empowerment deal was handed over when Gold Fields had acquired mining rights in South Deep, the group's most profitable South African mining asset.
According to reports, it included more than 70 advantaged persons, including president Jacob Zuma's lawyer right up to Baleka Mbete, ANC chairperson, as well as Zindzi Mandela and a daughter of a former prominent ANC member of the parliamentary portfolio committee on minerals. The value of the BEE transaction was approximately R2,1 billion.
"What happened here once again shows why South Africa is not eager to embrace the member states of the European Union as trade partners. Without a watchful eye, the plunder in the name of empowerment can continue unabated and be swept under the carpet.
"In this case, the FF Plus will see to it that it does not happen and will see to it that the allegations are investigated," Adv. Alberts says.
Statement issued by Adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson: Trade and Industry, September 10 2013
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