ANALYSIS: Mark Burke saga is a strong test of DA’s good governance swagger

DA federal chairperson and Deputy Minister of Finance Ashor Sarupen’s decision to play defence for DA federal finance boss Mark Burke after news of the Reserve Bank probe into Kastelo is a strange one, but you can understand why he did it.

Deciding to defend Dr Mark Burke – DA chairperson of federal finance and Member of Parliament on the Standing Committee on Appropriations, as well as an alternate member of the Standing Committee on Finance – on the grounds of there being “no finding of wrongdoing... that would justify the DA treating him as though such a finding had already been made” was a bold strategy by DA federal chairperson and Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen.

Yes, there is no court judgment handed down that says he is guilty of any wrongdoing, but when you measure the documented evidence against the Code of Ethical Conduct for Members of Parliament, Burke’s fiduciary duties as codified in the Companies Act (71 of 2008) and the DA’s own internal governance posturing, it becomes a very different conversation.

Wait, what did Burke even do? Burke didn’t do anything personally. The Reserve Bank froze R13-million in Kastelo’s bank accounts, accusing the company of orchestrating a massive scheme that illegally moved at least R4-billion out of the country in 2025. Burke has a in PhD in econometrics and quantitative economics from the University of Cambridge and is kind of a big deal in blockchain and crypto circles – like a legitimate leading mind. He founded Kastelo with his brother. The SA Reserve Bank’s (Sarb’s) Financial Surveillance Department (FinSurv) was tipped off by Access Bank (where Kastelo kept its funds) and is now alleging the following chain of events: Using everyday South Africans: Every citizen has a legal limit on how much money they can send offshore each year. Kastelo allegedly paid ordinary people small bonuses (between R2,000 and R10,000) for the right to use their personal allowances. “Fake” loans: To fund these massive offshore transfers, Kastelo allegedly “loaned” its own money to these individuals. Bank investigations revealed that many of these people were low-income earners who couldn't realistically afford the loans, and many had no idea offshore accounts had even been opened in their names. Crypto arbitrage: Kastelo allegedly used these funds for an algorithmic trading model in the cryptocurrency market, essentially taking advantage of crypto price differences across borders to make a profit.

Breaking the rules: By law, Kastelo was registered strictly as a middleman. The Reserve Bank accuses the company of breaking this rule by acting as the main trader, buying and selling foreign currency for its own profit while hiding behind the names of its clients.

Why does this even matter? Even though Kastelo argues that the money eventually made its way back to SA, it was returned in Randelas.