By Ben Maclennan
The Democratic Alliance, already reeling from claims that it took dirty money, received a fresh blow on Wednesday when its deputy leader in the Western Cape, Hennie Bester, resigned.
His announcement came only hours after a suspended Absa bank official told the Desai Commission how he laundered DM99 000 for the party.
Bester, considered one of the DA's leading thinkers, said his decision to quit was "not unrelated" to what had emerged in the commission.
"That certainly is a contributing factor," he told journalists at the provincial legislature building.
However, in an attack on his political opponents, he also said he had entered politics because he wanted to make a difference in people's lives and to serve in an accountable way.
"Events in Western Cape politics over the past 12 months have made it near impossible for me to live up to this goal.
"Politics in the Western Cape is now being conducted in a manner that I'm really no longer willing to participate in."
DA leader Tony Leon said in reaction that it was a "tragedy" that someone of Bester's enormous ability and "youthful patriotism" should feel it necessary to withdraw from public life.
African National Congress leader on the province Ebrahim Rasool said Bester's resignation would be the beginning of a major exodus from the DA.
"We always knew he would be the first victim because he was the person with the most integrity," he said.
"This example must be followed by (Western Cape DA leader Gerald) Morkel in particular. There's no way he can stay in public life."
Bester said normal political life and government had become virtually impossible.
"I hope for a time when this season of madness will be over and every South African irrespective of race or background will be welcome to build our country."
Bester said he had watched over the past six months as everything he had built up during his 18-month tenure as community safety MEC was "maligned and destroyed" by the ANC-New National Party coalition that took power in the province last year.
He said he had the greatest admiration for Leon, whose integrity he had never doubted, and would remain a member of the party.
His resignation from the legislature, where he leads the opposition, would take effect at the end of June.
He would continue to give the Desai Commission his full co-operation and hoped that it would bring out an independent and unbiased report.
However the whole saga was "part of a larger picture... of an opposition that's being hunted".
Asked about his relationship with the beleaguered Morkel, he said he and Morkel had a long history, and had done many good things together.
"But Mr Morkel is the guardian of his own conscience, and the master of his own fate, and must take his own decisions."
The Absa official, Erik Marais, who is married to a DA local councillor, told the commission on Wednesday morning that on Morkel's instructions he laundered DM90 000, given to the DA by an unnamed donor.
The commission has been told by fugitive German businessman Jurgen Harksen that he (Harksen) donated more than a million rand to the DA, much of it given to Morkel - a claim the DA has denied.
Marais said he was contacted by Morkel, then Western Cape premier, in July or August 2001 to ask if he would help process a donation to the party.
He later went to the office of DA provincial secretary Werner Schwella who gave him the Deutschmarks and asked that at least part of it be paid into the party's account before December. Marais said that over a period of time he changed the money, using his own passport, at Absa branches, and offices of Rennies Travel and during a holiday in Amsterdam.
He said he specifically asked who the donation came from and Schwella said he did not know.
He paid in a first instalment of R104 800 at the beginning of October. The last time he paid in anything was in January or February this year, at which point R90 000 was still in his possession. He handed this leftover cash in April to the Scorpions, who also had copies of the deposit slips.
Asked why the money was dealt with in this way, Marais said political parties were very sensitive about donations, and he, as an acquaintance of Morkel, had been in a position of confidence.
Bester told the commission last week that he once discussed with Morkel and then-finance MEC Leon Markovitz whether the party should take money from Harksen.
Bester, who is a lawyer by training, said he had strongly opposed the idea. He has consistently said he was unaware of any donations by Harksen to the party. - Sapa