IIllustrative Image: Ashor Sarupen, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance. (Photo: Gallo Images / Misha Jordaan) | DA finance chief Mark Burke. (Photo: Gallo Images/Misha Jordaan) | Geordin Hill-Lewis, Executive Mayor of Cape Town. (Photo: Grant Pitcher / Gallo Images) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) On Wednesday, 19 August 2026, newly minted DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis was meant to kickstart the DA’s campaign to win three metros in Gauteng on 4 November. It is the party’s big push north and the start of his goal to make it the largest party in South Africa.
Instead, that news was completely swamped by revelations that Kastelo, the forex crypto arbitrage company founded by DA finance boss and rising star, Dr Mark Burke, is facing a serious SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) probe. At first, the party was at sea on the right thing to do: for the young finance boss to tough it out or step aside.
Whistleblowers, Kastelo’s bankers and other clients alerted the Sarb to possible forex infringements involving billions of rand, which has sparked a furious court battle between the company and the central bank.
Burke is trying to back away fast – he is no longer a listed director according to Companies and Intellectual Property Commission records but his Parliamentary register of interests still shows declarations. The party has asked him to clarify his interests in a range of crypto, forex and fintech businesses.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_5683501_994769.jpg "Mark Burke (DA's Spokesperson on Finance) at the announcement of urgent reform plan on BBBEE, Employment Equity, and Expropriation Act at Nkululeko House on August 11, 2025 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA) outlined a set of urgent, practical and implementable reforms and alternatives, around which the DA will campaign. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)")
The holding company is effectively a family business as his brother Nicholas Burke runs it. While Companies and Intellectual Property Commission records show he has stepped aside from the holding company, it’s not clear whether the rest of his interests are housed in a family or blind trust.
Best practice for wealthy businesspeople-turned-politicians is to house their interests in a blind trust. Daily Maverick has requested clarity from Burke and the DA and will add it once it is received.
Hill-Lewis intervenes
Hill-Lewis had to step in on Wednesday to insist Burke step aside from three big oversight roles at Parliament.
In doing so, he overruled the DA’s first joint statement in which the party’s federal council chairperson and Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen said:
“The DA will not interfere with or prejudge the investigation. Should any competent regulatory authority or court ultimately make findings of wrongdoing against any DA public representative, the party will act appropriately. There is no finding of wrongdoing against Dr Burke that would justify the DA treating him as though such a finding had already been made.”
Hours later, the party changed tack and Burke stepped aside in what he says was voluntary, but reports suggest was insisted upon by Hill-Lewis. Daily Maverick sought clarity and comment from Hill-Lewis’ office and will add it once it is received.
/file/attachments/orphans/WFD_1798_293785.jpg "DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis and Solly Msimanga puts up the party’s first 2026 national election slogan posters on Louis Botha Avenue in Johannesburg, as the DA prepares for the local government elections on 4 November 2026. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)")
The question now facing both Hill-Lewis and Sarupen as the DA’s Number 1 and Number 2 respectively is: With a parliamentary caucus often in disarray and a divided complement of DA ministers in the Government of National Unity (GNU), what do they do? Either Hill-Lewis must stay on to fight the campaign as Cape Town mayor or go to Parliament to right a listing ship at the centre of his party’s growing power.
Or, Sarupen will have to step down as deputy finance minister to manage the caucus with parliamentary leader George Michalakis.
Timing questioned
DA sources suggest a confluence between the party’s watchdog work on the PIC and the Burke revelations.
On Monday, the day the Burke issue broke in the media, the party started a wide-ranging campaign on governance issues at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which holds government pensions and is the country’s largest asset manager. It is a huge player in the economy and is once again in crisis.
The DA, led by MP Andrew Bateman, is campaigning against losses in the Isibaya Fund, which houses the PIC’s unlisted assets. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is at loggerheads with his deputy, David Masondo, who quit as chairperson of the PIC.
Sources in the DA question the timing of the Burke revelations.
The DA caucus is more unstable as it grows bigger, raising more sharply the question of whether either Hill-Lewis or Sarupen must give up their day jobs to focus on the party.
Rebecca Davis broke the story of former party leader John Steenhuisen’s big spending ways which eventually led to his exit from the party.
Davis has also reported that the DA paid a Dubai-based political consultancy a lot of money to run its GNU caucus at Parliament. This caused unhappiness among the party’s MP’s and raised questions about influence politics and unelected power. DM
Burke’s position
“I am not the chairperson of Kastelo Proprietary Limited, the company that is the subject of the litigation, and I am not involved in its daily operations. I previously served as chairperson of the broader Kastelo group but have since ceased serving in that position in February 2026. I resigned from Kastelo in 2024 to pursue a political career.
“The high court judgment does not make any finding of wrongdoing against Kastelo, nor myself.
“Nor does the judgment constitute a finding that exchange control contraventions have been proven. The matter before the court concerned whether the Reserve Bank had grounds to issue a blocking order while its investigation continues. The court found that it did.
“At all times I have and will act ethically and lawfully, and I am confident that once the Sarb’s inquiry is complete, it will find no wrongdoing on my part.”
Who is Mark Burke?
Dr Mark John Burke was born on 18 September 1989 in Kroonstad in the Free State and attended North-West University, where he completed BA and BSc Honours degrees. He then moved to the University of Cape Town, where he completed a Master’s degree in computer engineering. His Master’s degree studies focused on enabling anonymous crime reporting on mobile phones in the developing world.
Burke then spent a year researching cryptography, artificial intelligence and pattern recognition at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He received an Oppenheimer Scholarship to continue his studies at Cambridge University, where he completed a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in technology policy.
Burke’s studies focused on meeting the challenges of integrating technology, management, and policy. He also received the Shaun Johnson Memorial Scholarship and completed a PhD in econometrics and quantitative economics at the University of Cambridge. In 2010, Dr Burke was named as one of SA’s “100 Brightest Young Minds”. – LinkedIn
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