Balfour’s car leaves questions

The minister of correctional services, Ngconde Balfour, has submitted inaccurate information to parliament after allegations surfaced that he received a car as a gift that he failed to declare in the register of MPs’ interests.

Balfour kept quiet about his free ride

This emerged from documents he submitted to parliament’s ethics committee.

Parliament is investigating Balfour following a complaint that his acquisition of a luxury 4x4 constituted a conflict of interest , because it was financed by a company linked to a group of companies that has secured multimillion-rand tenders from his department.

The documents Balfour submitted to the ethics committee on August 27 show he bought a VW Touareg 5.0 V10 TDI on February 21 2006. The attached “detailed” statement from financier Kgwerano/Wesbank shows he started paying on November 15 last year.

Balfour has — in response to a question from the Sunday Times — rejected claims that this meant he had been driving the car free of charge for more than a year without declaring it as a benefit.

He said he would make a “second submission” showing payments from 2006;

The ethics committee is investigating whether or not Balfour’s VW 5.0 V10 TDI was a gift. But in an attempt to clear himself, Balfour submitted a statement showing payments for a VW Touareg R5 2.5 TDI.

Balfour said the information he submitted was for the same model, the 5.0 V10;

Balfour told the ethics committee in his submission that his account number for the Touareg 5.0 V10 TDI at Kgwerano/Wesbank was 185136921952. But other documents show the account number as 85103621165.

In response, Balfour said the account number was changed by the bank when the financing of the car was “restructured” to extend the term of payment and reduce instalments. “The restructuring of the finance agreement during October 2007 involved Wesbank closing the existing account number and opening a new account number”; and

Information in the possession of the Sunday Times shows the debt on the Touareg 5.0 V10 TDI has been settled.

However, in a press statement on August 26 and a submission to parliament, Balfour stated he was still financing the personal car bought in 2006.

Balfour said: “The information in the possession of the Sunday Times with regard to settlement is incorrect. The detailed statements issued by Wesbank show an outstanding contract balance as at September 15 2008 of R882535.71.”

Balfour did not answer questions as to whether the apparent discrepancies were meant to mislead parliament.

The investigation of Balfour’s car payments was sparked by a complaint by his director-general, Vernie Petersen, who wrote to former public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and the ethics committee.

Petersen cited clauses of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act that prohibit ministers from “exposing themselves to any situation involving the risk for a conflict between their official responsibilities and their private interests”.

In responses to the Sunday Times Balfour said: “This whole thing has brought about a tremendous strain on me, my children and my family and I will not rest until I have dealt with whoever is behind these unfounded allegations.”

The Sunday Times earlier reported that Balfour had asked former President Thabo Mbeki to fire Petersen, because he believed his director-general’s behaviour was “insolent” and “criminal”. Petersen has declined to respond to the claims.