They took textile workers’ retirement funds to run their own businesses, rented a building to the government, ate sushi and went on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Star has been shown bank statements for Canyon Springs Investments 12, dating from January 2007 before the loan payments started, through to March 2011.
The account started with an overdraft of R58, then swelled with the R87 million in textile workers’ money from investment company Trilinear. By the end of March this year, there was R127 000 in the account.
The only work Canyon Springs seems to have done was hand out money, pay phone bills and go travelling.
Its income was primarily the Trilinear handouts plus interest on this from fixed-deposit accounts.
The biggest chunk - R15m - went to Leading Prospect Trading 42 in May 2007. At the time Ace Magashule, now premier of the Free State, was a director of Leading Prospect; he has denied any involvement in the matter.
The statements show how money flowed into the Canyon Springs account and out again to Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) consultant Richard Kawie and to Deputy Minister of Economic Development Enoch Godongwana, his wife Thandiwe and their business partner Mohan Patel.
Godongwana was chairman of Canyon Springs from November 2007 to May 2009, while his wife was a non-executive director since May 2009.
The bank statements reflect direct payments of about R600 000 to Godongwana, about R420 000 to his wife and nearly R1m to Patel.
The payments to Enoch Godongwana were made from November 2007 to September 2008, to Thandiwe from June 2009 to April 2010, and to Patel from March 2009 to March 2011.
Kawie both received and deposited money across the four years, mainly through three of his businesses. By the end he had benefited by R6.4m.
The bulk of the money went to businesses owned by the Godongwanas and Patel.
Pan African Benefit Services (PABS), involved in the retirement fund business, got more than R13.6m, moved in numerous transactions - often several times a month.
The Godongwanas and Patel were directors or shareholders in PABS at various times; Patel from January 2007, when the plans to move the Sactwu money to Canyon Springs were hatched.
The Iboma Call Centre, which sold services to various branches of the government, received at least R1.4m. Iboma got payments to its bank account, plus had its staff and phone bills paid directly by Canyon Springs.
Both Godongwanas and Patel were Iboma directors at various times. All three were also directors at various times of other Iboma businesses, and Kawie was also a director of at least two Iboma businesses.
Canyon Springs paid about R250 000 for at least five different Telkom accounts, including Iboma’s.
Patel got other payments too. More than R1m is listed as payments for Kismet Plaza, a building in Athlone, Cape Town, which Patel owns with a relative.
The Patels rent space in Kismet Plaza to the Western Cape regional office of the Government Communication and Information System.
Kismet Plaza, valued by the municipality at R14m, is just one of many Patel properties.
In one business with his relative he owns 88 properties, mostly adjoining plots of empty land, in the Athlone and Gatesville area, inherited from a relative who bought most of the property in the 1960s.
One of those 88 properties has apparently been rebuilt and now has a municipal valuation of R20m.
Another Athlone property has a municipal valuation of R8m and is used by a Toyota dealership.
One of Patel’s trusts bought two sectional title units, one in November 2007 for R1.1m with a huge bond, and the other in April 2008 for R47 000 cash.
The Canyon Springs accounts indicate that an astonishing amount was spent on travel. However, many of these travel transactions seemed to be an attempt to hide payments to an individual.
There are at least 15 payments from April 2007 to September 2008 logged as “M AirfairsM”, totalling about R1.3m.
Most of these payments are for the same amount - just over R83 000 - which looks like a monthly payment of R132 000 less tax to an individual.
Other payments indicate that in February 2008, someone travelled through Dubai.
The next month someone spent nearly R50 000 on a single set of air tickets, then three months later R47 000 on a hotel in Nigeria. In May 2009, someone paid R43 000 to a travel business that specialises in hajj tours to Mecca.
In June 2008, Canyon Springs spent R14 500 on a Cape Town sushi restaurant.
A firm of architects, based in one of Patel’s buildings, got more than R600 000.
The SA Revenue Service was paid about R1.5m, although this does not seem to be enough to cover tax deductions on all the payments.
The end of 2009 seems to have been a good year for spending, with the last of the Trilinear “loan” instalments being moved to Canyon Springs in November 2009.
Canyon Springs in turn handed over R50 000 each to Thandiwe Godongwana and Patel on Christmas Eve, and the R40 000 to each four days later. Kawie got R100 000 on Christmas Eve and R270 000 four days later.
The Iboma Call Centre got three payments that December, PABS got R1m, and even the building got a Christmas bonus, as Kismet Plaza got a double payment of R171 000.
By March this year, almost all the money in the Canyon Springs account was spent, leaving only R127 000. - The Star