2012-05-04 11:10
Johannesburg – The ANC and trustees of Brett Kebble‘s estate on Friday morning reached an out-of-court settlement about a donation the mining magnate made to the party before his death.
“It’s settled. It’s done,” ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa said.
The ANC would repay the R250 000 Kebble donated to it in 2004, without admitting liability. This was to avoid “enriching the lawyers”, Phosa said.
The case was to have been heard in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Friday.
City Press reported on Sunday that the trustees argued in court papers that because no value was received in return for the money, it could be reclaimed.
The ANC however argued in its papers that, “Kebble obtained the benefit of access to political decision makers and lawmakers that would be beneficial to him both directly and indirectly by virtue of its benefits to the companies in which he had an interest”.
His donation further enabled Kebble “to promote for his benefit and that of those companies in which he had an interest”.
The ANC also argued that if Kebble paid the money, his assets exceeded his liabilities immediately after the transaction. According to the Insolvency Act, donations cannot be made if liabilities exceed assets.
Businessman Kebble was shot dead in September 2005, in an apparent “assisted suicide” carried out by self-confessed hitmen Mikey Schultz, Faizel Smith and Nigel McGurk.
– SAPA
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ANC, Kebble estate reach settlement