Marais not off the hook yet - 6 February 2007

marais not off the hook yet


the state has taken the first step to appeal against former western cape premier peter marais's acquittal on corruption charges relating to the r550-million roodefontein golf estate deal.

if the state does win the right to appeal, it could legally tie up marais for a further one to two years, after his marathon three-year trial ended in acquittal in october 2006, and further dent his already severely depleted financial resources.

marais is adamant there's a sinister motive for the state's move: to prevent him from suing for malicious prosecution where, he says, he will testify under oath and bring witnesses to prove that then nnp leader marthinus van schalkwyk knew about and approved two huge payments to the nnp from roodefontein developer riccardo agusta that gave rise to the corruption charges.

but van schalkwyk, now minister of environmental affairs and tourism, testified during marais's trial that he had only found out about these payments months after they had been made and had then immediately acted against marais.

on monday, he again dismissed marais's claim.

it is rare for the state to appeal against an acquittal. the last high-profile state appeal, which ended in defeat, was when it appealed against aspects of the acquittal of apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare expert dr wouter basson.

marais's co-accused, former provincial planning and environment mec david malatsi, who was convicted on one charge of corruption and sentenced to five years in jail, is also facing a possible appeal.

malatsi was convicted in october of receiving a r100 000 bribe from agusta to "grease" the roodefontein development application, but was acquitted by bellville regional court magistrate andre le grange on a second charge of also corruptly receiving r300 000 from the italian businessman.

marais was acquitted on both these charges.

three years ago, agusta pleaded guilty to two charges of corruption relating to these payments to marais and malatsi and was fined r1-million in a plea bargain agreement with the state.

a dejected marais confirmed yesterday that his lawyer had told him he had been informed that scorpions prosecutors had initiated the first step in a possible appeal against his acquittal.

this involved a formal request by the prosecutors to le grange to provide his stated case on points of law in his judgment. in a criminal case, the state cannot appeal against findings of fact, only on points of law.

malatsi's lawyer frank raymond, who is helping the former mec appeal against his conviction, said yesterday they had only "heard rumours" of the state's appeal move.

"no papers have been served and it's all speculation so far," he said.

scorpions' spokesperson lucinda moonieya declined to comment.

marais told the cape argus on monday that he was "physically fine, but spiritually very disappointed about what's taken place in my life". "i'm in a very sad mood at the moment," the former premier said.

marais said he and webster had learned that the state's appeal move had been initiated on instructions from the national prosecuting authority in pretoria.

"what interest has pretoria in my case?" he asked. "i find this very odd and very strange."