Cape Town - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) may be the biggest critics of the mining industry and “white monopoly capital”, but that hasn’t stopped one of the party’s 25 MPs from holding a directorship in a coal mining company.
In the register for members’ interests released this week, EFF MP Diliza Twala is listed as a director of Bridoon Investments, which lists its “business activity” as coal mining.
He also holds “consultancies” or “retainerships” in a stockbroking firm and access to a game lodge, at R4 000 a year from “time to time”, as well as a piggery in Heidelberg.
The EFF and its leader Julius Malema have been among the most vocal critics of the mining sector and the exploitation and plight of mineworkers. The party is also calling for the nationalisation of mines.
Twala said on Thursday thta he joined Bridoon Investments about seven years ago and wasn’t making any money or cashing in dividends from the business venture.
“It’s a prospecting right and nothing else – it’s not a mining activity. It’s an independent thing, it’s innocent. It’s a prospecting right that we got. We haven’t even explored the site. It’s a company with other people. I’m just a part of them,” said Twala.
EFF leader Julius Malema said this week he didn’t have much to declare because most or all of his assets had been attached and auctioned off by the SA Revenue Service.
Malema declared only his shares and interests in his Ratanang Family Trust and three other trusts, and has no land or property.
“Those are dormant trusts. There’s Ratanang and the other one is an NGO and the other an investment trust with no investments,” was all Malema was prepared to say.
EFF MPs are not the only ones to reveal their private interests in the register, with Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa heading the list with millions in assets.
DA MP and former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach declared a sponsored BMW X5 from Kirsh Industries South Africa, a company owned by DA funder Nathan Kirsh, who was reported to be behind the DA’s failed marriage to Agang SA.
Mbete declared equity shares totalling about R27 million, related to her stake in two entities involved in a controversial Gold Fields empowerment deal. Ramaphosa disclosed personal shareholdings of R76.5m as well as directorships in cattle and game-farming ventures and an abattoir.
The Tshivhase Trust holds the bulk of Ramaphosa’s shares in the Shanduka group, but this is part of the confidential section of the register because there are other people involved. The trust holds 30 percent in McDonald’s, for which Ramaphosa acquired the developmental licence many years ago. Ramaphosa is not required to divest any shareholding in companies and is merely required to declare them. Where a conflict of interest may arise, a member must either dispose the assets or place them under the management of an independent person.
In addition to his personal shareholding, Ramaphosa disclosed 32 income properties, including seven retirement homes in Johannesburg.
ANC MP Luwellyn Landers received a wristwatch from the president of Bolivia.
Fellow ANC MP Hunadi Mateme declared shares in more than 20 companies, including the country’s biggest property firm, Growthpoint, and the world’s largest mining company, BHP Billiton.
Corné Mulder of the Freedom Front Plus listed 15 companies in which he has ordinary shares. These include some of the country’s biggest listed companies, such as Anglo Gold Ashanti, Naspers, MTN and Woolworths.
Political Bureau