The Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) was a company established by the Apartheid government to purchase and store oil in the face of worldwide oil sanctions against South Africa. With the change-over of government, the secrecy and the role of this company came repeatedly under questioning. The Minister for Minerals and Energy, Penuell Maduna (Minister from June 1996 to June 1999), particularly pursued issues of past oil deals, notably transactions paying commission to an intermediary, Fakhry Abdelnour, trading as Interstate and the African Middle East company (AME), and the apparent discrepancy of R170m in the Auditor-General’s report to Parliament in 1994. The then General Manager of SFF, S.J. “Kobus” van Zyl, was put under scrutiny in a series of inquiries into these issues. The proceedings included an independent audit by Nkonki Sizwe Ntsaluba (NSN) ordered by the Minister, the Auditor-General’s Special Report in response to the Minister’s remarks in Parliament, the subsequent Public Protector’s Inquiry, and the Disciplinary Hearing against Van Zyl, brought by his employer, CEF/SFF.

The material in this collection comprises the papers collected by Van Zyl over this period, which he gave to Stephan Brummer of the Mail and Guardian, then donated to SAHA. It includes transcripts, earlier documents brought in as evidence, reports of the inquiries or hearings, as well as documentation contemporary to the main period in question. The bulk and detail of evidence brought was such that particularly detailed documentation (such as individual shipping movements, audit trails, financial transactions), plus duplicates of pertinent correspondence and reports as presented in sequence, will be found in the series ‘G’ called Evidence.

EGPC - Egyptian Government’s oil trading corporation

GOSM - Gulf of Suez Mix

IPE - International Petroleum Exchange

SFF - Strategic Fuel Fund

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