Special Hearings — Chemical And Biological Warfare Hearings — 1998-07-07

DR RANDERA: Dr Myburgh, would you consider it unusual to be getting that sort of an order from the South African Medical Services, to be producing a million tablets of something you don't know?  I would have again understood that as part of the health services, if any tablets were to be bought, it would through the tender system.  Had you ever received and order like that from the South African Medical Services previously, whether as a front company or as a private company?

DR MIJBURGH: I'm not aware of any such order, no.

DR RANDERA: Again, from your experience of the South African Medical Services, when tablets were bought or capsules were bought, would they come through front companies such as yours?

DR MIJBURGH: I can't comment on that because I had no experience of that in the SAMS.

DR RANDERA: But you have experience of dealing with not only the front companies, but as a medical pharmaceutical company, had you ever received an order such as the one we're talking about?  A million - we're not talking about a few hundred capsules, we're talking about a million capsules.

DR MIJBURGH: We had never previously had such an order, no.

DR RANDERA: So you would say it's unusual?

DR MIJBURGH: For the company at that stage, yes, it was the first time that there was such an order.  We did however place such orders in relation to other people.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Vally?

MR VALLY: Mr Beukes says that he returned the capsules to the basement at Medchem.  What happened to the capsules from there?

DR MIJBURGH: I would not be able to say.  I accept that it was taken by Mr Basson, the person who placed the order.

MR VALLY: Are you assuming that?

DR MIJBURGH: I accept that, yes, I was not involved in the order itself or the execution thereof.

MR VALLY: So you are expecting us to believe that a million capsules were delivered or taken by Dr Basson, you're not sure how, where, when?  One person, Dr Wouter Basson took a million capsules.  When, you're not sure - how, you're not sure.

DR MIJBURGH: I do not know, I do not know how many volume-wise a million capsules would be, I do not know how it was delivered and how he fetched it.

MR VALLY: A major order, the first major order of a company of which you were a director, and you showed no interest in something as simple as delivering?

DR MIJBURGH: I was a non-executive director, Mr Beukes was skilled enough to manage the company within his abilities, and I did not think it necessary to concern myself with that.

MR VALLY: Well Mr Beukes delivered it to the company of which you were the Managing Director.  He says in his affidavit that it was returned to the basement.

DR MIJBURGH: He definitely did not deliver it to Medchem,  the delivery was not from Medchem.  I accept that it was an agreement made with Dr Basson.

MR VALLY: You're assuming that it was an agreement made?

DR MIJBURGH: I would assume that, yes.

MR VALLY: So Dr Wouter Basson had complete access to your basements at any stage, to come and go as he liked?

DR MIJBURGH: The specific storage room of which we are speaking about was used by Dr Basson, yes.

MR VALLY: And so you're saying he could have come at any time, no documents, no notes, he could have taken whatever he wanted from that storeroom?

DR MIJBURGH: At that stage if it had been delivered there, it was delivered to the Defence Force and I accept that it would have been invoiced as well.

MR VALLY: With respect, you just told us Medchem was a private company, it wasn't a front company.

DR MIJBURGH: It was not a front company.

MR VALLY: So if it wasn't a front company, how can you say that delivery to you was delivery to the Defence Force?

DR MIJBURGH: But it was not delivered to Medchem, it might have been delivered to the storage room, but not to the company.

MR VALLY: The storage room did not belong to the company?

DR MIJBURGH: Not the contents thereof.

MR VALLY: This deal whereby Kowolsky International, another private company, was named on the delivery note, was that not potentially fraudulent?

DR MIJBURGH: Why?

MR VALLY: You were trying to, according to your evidence, bypass the payment of VAT.

DR MIJBURGH: No, Mr Vally, it has to do with the disparity in time of the paying of GST.  There would be a back to back transaction between Medchem Technologies, so we had this money for a month longer in our account.

MR VALLY: Right, so you don't see that as being fraudulent?

DR MIJBURGH: No.

MR VALLY: A paper transaction purely for the purposes of delaying the payment of VAT?

MR VAN ZYL: Mr Chairman, with all respect, before the tea adjournment you indicated to Mr Vally, if I understood you correctly, that this aspect regarding VAT or sales tax invoices did not take matters any further and with respect he must limit himself to the relevant aspects, and I object o further questioning in this line.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Vally?

MR VALLY: My learned friend is entitled to his own opinion.  I think it's entirely relevant.  We have - one of the definitions of our act says severe ill-treatment is a gross violation of human rights and potentially putting a million capsules of ecstasy onto the streets, and we're coming to the mandrax just now, is sever ill-treatment, and so it falls specifically within our mandate and more so, it is set out in the subpoena which has been served on my learned friend's client.  However, he will be relieved to know that I'm moving on from ecstasy to mandrax.

CHAIRPERSON: I will also be relieved.

MR VAN ZYL: On that basis I'll withdraw my objections.

CHAIRPERSON: Let's move on, Mr Vally.

MR VALLY: Let's talk mandrax.  Tell us the process that you went through to crush the 200 000 mandrax tablets that you received from General Neethling?

DR MIJBURGH: I can't, Mr Vally, I wasn't involved in that personally.

MR VALLY: Before the tea break you advised us that you believed that the mandrax tablets had been crushed at Delta-G.

DR MIJBURGH: I can't tell you how the physical extraction took place, I don't know.

MR VALLY: Did you have machines to do that, I don't assume you had someone sitting with a mortar and pastel, we're talking 200 000 tablets.  Did you have the manufacturing capacity, do you have machinery which could crush 200 000 tablets?

DR MIJBURGH: I don't think we could have crushed it, but maybe it wasn't crushed, maybe it was just put in a solvent.

MR VALLY: ...(indistinct)

DR MIJBURGH: I don't know.

MR VALLY: You of course knew that mandrax was an illegal substance, an illegal drug?

DR MIJBURGH: Mandrax the tablet, yes, it was an illegal drug.

MR VALLY: And methaqualone, you are aware of that, you're nodding your head.

DR MIJBURGH: Yes.

MR VALLY: Yes, so weren't you interested in the control of this substance from point of receipt to point of delivery?  Can you tell us anything at all about the 200 000 mandrax tablets that you had received, allegedly by Delta-G?

DR MIJBURGH: I can't tell you any more that as has already been put out in the documents.  We did an extraction, whether it was 200 000 tablets, I don't know, I can't give you the quantity.

MR VALLY: You say you did do an extraction?

DR MIJBURGH: Yes, an extraction was done of the mandrax tablets.

MR VALLY: How do you know this?

DR MIJBURGH: I think that there was such an extraction, I seem to recall that there was.

MR VALLY: But you're not sure?

DR MIJBURGH: I don't know exactly when it was done, how many tablets were involved.

MR VALLY: Right, you don't know when it was done, how many tablets were involved, how it's done, you don't know, you've already advised us on this.  What did you do with it after whatever you need to extract, the methaqualone for example, what did you do with the methaqualone?

DR MIJBURGH: It would have been given back to the Defence Force.

MR VALLY: Do you know this for a fact?