THE Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions will prosecute former minister of social development Bathabile Dlamini for perjury, or alternatively for giving false evidence under oath.
A summons has been issued for her to appear in the Johannesburg Regional Court on September 21 2021.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Black Sash Trust said the Director of Public Prosecutions in Gauteng has decided to prosecute Dlamini for allegedly giving false evidence at a 2018 inquiry.
The charges relate to the testimony Dlamini’s gave before the Constitutional Court in relation to her personal involvement in the social grant crisis.
The Constitutional Court handed down judgment in September 2018, finding Dlamini’s conduct had been “reckless and grossly negligent” and ordered her to pay a portion of the costs of litigation.
The court further ordered that this judgment and Judge Bernard Ngoepe’s report be forwarded to the National Director of Public Prosecutions to consider whether Dlamini lied under oath and should be prosecuted for perjury.
On August 19 2021, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and the Black Sash Trust were informed that Director of Public Prosecutions in the Gauteng Local Division in Johannesburg has decided to prosecute Dlamini for perjury.
“Many will remember that this is a long running process that has taken place over many years (when) the Black Sash and the brought an application the Constitutional Court, in which Freedom Under Law intervened seeking supervision of the court in respect of the unlawfully awarded contract to cash pay master services for the distribution of social grants,” said CEO of Freedom Under Law Nicole Fritz.
- Inside Politics
