Maree returned to South Africa after the first democratic elections in 1994 and enjoyed a meteoric rise through corporate ranks. He set up an asset management firm specialising in promoting black empowerment and was hand-picked as a special adviser by the ANC government’s minister for trade and industry.
The former world-class athlete had crafted a seamless return and established himself as a powerful figure in South African business and political life.
But now, less than 12 months after receiving the Order of Ikhamanga, South Africa’s highest honour for achievement in sport and the arts, Maree awaits the outcome of an investigation into "irregular practices" within a government agency of which he was chief executive.
He was suspended from his position as head of the National Empowerment Fund in June when about one million rand (£90,000) used by the fund to "pay" Deutsche Bank for work that Maree had commissioned was traced to a personal account. It emerged that Deutsche Bank, with whom Maree had forged a relationship during his time at the trade and industry department, had done the work for nothing.
Maree protests his innocence
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3260985Ex-NEF boss Maree admitted guilt, court hears
May 25, 2006
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
Pretoria - When Sydney Maree, the former chief executive of the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), was asked several times why he had transferred money from the agency into his private bank account, he allegedly replied: "I don't know" several times.
Alistair Ruiters, the former director-general of the department of trade and industry and Maree's boss at the NEF, said this while giving evidence yesterday at the Pretoria specialised commercial crime court, where Maree is facing charges of fraud and theft amounting to about R1 million.
Maree was the acting chief executive of the NEF from September 2003 until his suspension in June 2004.
His senior counsel, Bert Bam, however, indicated that Maree would say in his defence that he was instructed by Ruiters to transfer the money and had not acted unlawfully but irregularly.