Former ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize has been drawn into a legal scrap over an alleged R4.5-million kickback for helping an oil company get a huge loan from the Public Investment Corporation.
A Johannesburg law firm has named Mkhize in a legal claim against Afric Oil, which describes itself as South Africa's "first BEE fuel distribution company".
In a letter dated October 2017 and seen by the Sunday Times, the law firm claims to be acting for Zonkizizwe Investments, which it says is "wholly owned by the ANC".
The letter claims that at a meeting at Luthuli House "sometime in early June 2016" a loan application to the PIC "was extensively discussed and the TG agreed to promote Afric Oil's projects, including providing support for the facilitation of the PIC loan".
The meeting came after an initial loan application had been rejected by the government pension fund manager, the letter says.
It further claims that it was agreed that "due to the sensitive nature of the matter, no capital-raising agreement should be concluded between Afric Oil and Zonkizizwe and that the parties should rely on the verbal undertakings".
It says a "fund-raising fee shall be shared amongst them", with R4.5-million going to Mkhize. The loan was for R210-million.
Mkhize, who is now minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, denies all knowledge of the agreement, telling the Sunday Times this week: "At no point did I play a role in facilitating a loan from the PIC for a company called Afric Oil. I also have no relationship with a company called Zonkizizwe Investments."But Mkhize's predecessor, Mathews Phosa, yesterday confirmed that Zonkizizwe was an "ANC-formed company".
"I worked with them when I was the treasurer-general of the party."
He said the company had been formed "to take care of ANC elders, but it never paid its dividends to the party while I was there".
The "facilitation fee" has been described by governance experts as "highly inappropriate" and "nothing short of corruption".
The Sunday Times has established that Afric Oil received a R210-million loan from the PIC in February last year. A month later, the company sold its 71% interest to SacOil, a listed independent oil and gas company whose CEO, Dr Thabo Kgogo, is a close ally of PIC CEO Dan Matjila. Sources with intimate knowledge of the deal claimed that Mkhize twisted Matjila's arm to approve Afric Oil's loan application.
"Mkhize allegedly used the [argument] that government had spent R2-billion funding 102 black industrialists since 2016, but R63-billion on 45 white-owned manufacturers in just one year," a source said.
Former Afric Oil CEO Tseke Nkadimeng this week confirmed he had been introduced to Mkhize at Luthuli House by his cousin, Joseph Nkadimeng, who provides security at ANC headquarters. But he denied Mkhize facilitated his loan application.
"Why do you need to go to Zweli Mkhize for a loan with PIC?" Nkadimeng asked.
He confirmed he had received the letter from the law firm demanding the payment for those who allegedly facilitated the deal for Afric Oil, but said he could not pay them because there was no contract.
"I know facilitation fees, but they must be paid where a contract was signed," he said.
However, former intelligence boss Billy Masetlha said on Friday that he had helped Afric Oil get a loan from the PIC for the promise of a fee - which he had not received.
"Three years ago Afric Oil approached me through Joseph Nkadimeng to facilitate their loan with PIC and they haven't paid me after we helped them secure the loan."Masetlha said he wasn't sure what Mkhize's role in the matter had been, as he had been roped in by Joseph Nkadimeng.
"Joseph called me to help, I don't know who else he called. I was asked to help and that's all I did and now I want my facilitation fee," he said.
Joseph Nkadimeng confirmed on Friday he had asked Masetlha to help after Afric Oil gave him a mandate.
"Afric Oil mandated my company, Noble Defence Company, to take facilitation advisory and I involved some of my comrades and the company got their R210-million loan. Our mandate is done," he said.
He admitted he was not on good terms with his cousin because of Tseke's refusal to honour their "gentlemen's agreement".
"Invoices were sent to Afric Oil and they weren't honoured and now we have instituted a legal action to get what is due to us," he said.
He said the parties involved in the facilitation process were owed "tens of millions of rands by Afric Oil".
The PIC's head of corporate affairs, Deon Botha, confirmed on Friday that the PIC had awarded Afric Oil a R210-million loan. "The loan was disbursed during February 2017," he said. So far R26.2-million of the five-year loan had been repaid.
He denied knowing of Mkhize's alleged involvement in the facilitation of the loan. "The PIC has no knowledge of any 'facilitation fees' to be paid as part of the transaction."
Kgogo said although he knew about the claims, "there is no contract signed and it happened before we bought the company. There is nothing we can do about it." He confirmed that he knew Matjila but denied he had played any role in SacOil's acquisition of Afric Oil.On Friday UDM leader Bantu Holomisa wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking him to extend the scope of the state capture inquiry to include the PIC, as the corporation was a suspect in a "scandal bigger than the Gupta family's state capture".
David Lewis of Corruption Watch said it was "highly inappropriate" for governing party members to use their influence to raise capital from government-linked entities like the PIC for a private company.
"This was the modus operandi in a lot of the Gupta deals. This requires an urgent investigation."
Wayne Duvenage from the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse concurred, saying the fee requested by Zonkizizwe was "nothing short of corruption".
 
Editor's Note:
In a previous version of this article, we published details of a letter of demand for "facilitation fees" in a deal involving PIC funding for an oil deal. The headline"Lawyers demand PIC loan kickback for Zweli" is not supported by the facts in the story. Although former ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize, who is now Minister of Co-operative Governance, was named in the letter of demand, the letter was not sent on his behalf and no demand for payment was made on his behalf.
The letter states that Zonkizizwe directors General Paul Langa and Billy Masetlha were approached by Joseph Nkadimeng for help in enlisting Mkhize to facilitate the PIC loan for Afric Oil. Nkadimeng was allegedly acting at the behest of his cousin, Tseke Nkadimeng, Afric Oil's CEO at the time. The letter states that the parties agreed that a fund-raising fee of R7-million would be shared among them, with Mkhize getting R4,500 000, Zonkizizwe getting R1,250,000 and R1,250,000 for Nkadimeng's company, Noble. The letter of demand was sent on behalf of Zonkizizwe Investments to Afric Oil, demanding payment for its part in facilitating the loan from the PIC.
Mkhize and Tseke Nkadimeng denied Mkhize facilitated the loan.
We apologise to Mkhize for the error in the headline. The headline has since been amended on this story...