Cape Town - Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana is under fire over his appointment of a Cape Town consultant, who has been implicated in several dodgy fishing deals, some involving family and friends, to a sensitive fishing rights review panel.
The controversy over the appointment of Shaheen Moolla includes his having been an intermediary between black quota holders and commercial fishermen, his association with dodgy clients and criminal investigations involving some of the contracts that he negotiated.
Moolla, a fierce critic of the government’s fisheries policy and prominent consultant in the fishing industry, was appointed last month, along with Professor Julian Smith and attorney Mamakhe Mdhluli to a panel which is to review appeals lodged against the 2013 Fishing Rights Allocation Process.
Fisher communities, some businessmen and labour organisations have expressed surprise at the appointment of Moolla and vowed to oppose it at the highest level.
The 4000-member national federation of small-scale fishers wrote to Zokwana last month, accusing Moolla of involvement in buying fishing rights on the West Coast.
Cosatu’s regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich, who is also a city councillor, said the labour federation remained resolutely opposed to Moolla serving on the panel.
“Moolla does not represent the interests of the poor, but serves big business in the fishing industry,” Ehrenreich said.
But Zokwana has defended his decision to appoint Moolla.
Zokwana told Weekend Argus: “Moolla has been appointed because he has worked for department and has knowledge of the department” . He said that he was “aware of people who were casting aspersions on Advocate Moolla.”
In response to questions about criminal investigations involving contracts linked to Moolla, Zokwana said: “If there are cases against him, I am sure that he will deal with those issues.”
It was reported in 2011 that Moolla, acting for a person who claimed to represent four black quota holders, acted as intermediary to sell the quota rights to two prominent fishing companies.
It would appear that Moolla’s client never had the mandate from quota holders, but allegedly walked away with the balance of approximately R300 000 after Moolla deducted his R80 000 commission. At the time Moolla admitted that he had not vetted his client but refused to pay back the commission. The companies apparently laid criminal charges against Moolla and, according to the SAPS, the matter is under investigation.
Moolla’s version of what happened differed substantially. He maintained it was he “who pursued the laying of various criminal charges” against his former client “once it was established that he was a fraudster applying his trade in the industry”.
On why he had not vetted the alleged fraudster before involving himself in the transaction, Moolla stated: “As a legal and transaction adviser, it is not my obligation and function to ‘vet’ any party who purports to have the requisite legal authority to sign agreements on behalf of legal entities.”
He said neither he nor his Feike consultancy were forensic auditors and the alleged fraudster had “warranted and confirmed his legal mandate to act on behalf of entities concerned”.
Moolla maintains his Feike consultancy was only paid R5 000 for drawing up contracts, but the fishing companies concerned have confirmed money for quotas was paid to the Feike account, money which they have taken steps to recover.
The controversy does not end there. In 2012, Moolla received a mandate to act on behalf of Meermin Visserye, a company comprising 10 elderly Lamberts Bay women. The members of Meermin Visserye CC ended up selling their interests to one Ashraf Davids, described by Moolla as a family friend, and Moolla’s wife, Shereen Mathir, for an agreed purchase price of R4 million.
When the suspensive clause in this agreement was not met because the Meermin members had not been paid the agreed price, the women had the permit revoked and later took the matter to the Western Cape High Court.
It is in this case against the initial purchasers, and Davids’ father, who had become the sole proprietor, named as respondents, that Meermin founder Lya Louw described Moolla’s role in her founding affidavit.
“Our plight must obviously have become known in industry circles because we were approached by Mr Shaheen Moolla, one of the proprietors of Feike Natural Resource Management Advisors, who is also the husband of the second respondent and who wanted us to sell our fishing permit. Mr Moolla is a former official of the Department of Sea Fisheries and a well-known personality in the fishing sector. In fact, the applicants mostly had contact with Mr Moolla and to some extent with the first respondent but never dealt with the second respondent who is effectively unknown to us. It is obvious that Mr Moolla caused the agreement of sale to be concluded in the name of his wife, the second respondent herein. We were eventually persuaded by Mr Moolla as well as the first respondent to sell our fishing permit which resulted in the conclusion of the agreement of sale.”
Davids, the first respondent in the case, denied the contents of this paragraph but made reference to Moolla in his responding affidavit which stated: “During the course of 2013 (Lamberts Bay chartered accountant) Mr Cilliers communicated regularly with Mr Shaheen Moolla, who served as transaction and legal adviser concerning various matters concerning the administration of Meermin Visserye CC’s affairs.”
Acting Judge Chuma Cossie, who presided in this matter, ruled in October that the agreement of sale in Meermin Visserye was cancelled and that all necessary steps should be taken to return the women’s interests in the company and that the proceeds of the 2013 and 2014 catches be returned to them. The respondents have made application to appeal.
Moolla maintains he had no conflict of interest when his wife bought 50 percent of the members interest and that he “never ever represented the members of Meermin Visserye.”
This is disproved by documents in the possession of Weekend Argus.
In one specific piece of correspondence, signed and sent by Moolla in August 2012, he clearly states that he acts for the members of the corporation and demands that a substantial amount of money owed to Meermin Visserye be deposited into his Feike consultancy account. – Additional reporting by Ivor Powell
Weekend Argus