CAROL PATON: Awful lot of official silence on oil heist
THE sale of SA’s strategic fuel stocks is the heist of the democratic era. When most businesses had closed for the December break in 2015, acting CEO of the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) Sibusiso Gamede was hard at work, negotiating what he and Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said months later was a great deal for the country. The entire stock of 10-million barrels was sold to three invited buyers at a discount on the spot price of between $3 and $14 a barrel, an average discount of $7 a barrel. This is not to mention the dead-certain prospect that as the market was already at a historic low — so-called "contango" — the buyers also stood to gain handsomely as the price rose. The sale took place without the knowledge of the fund’s board or its holding company, the Central Energy Fund. It also took place without the permission of the finance minister, which is required by both the Central Energy Fund Act and the Public Finance Management Act. Joemat-Pettersson was on board, though....
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