Riyaz Patel
The High Court in Pretoria has set aside, with costs, the findings of the 2016 Seriti Commission of Inquiry which probed the controversial R30bn arms deal.
The commission, set up in 2011 by former president Jacob Zuma and chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, found no evidence of corruption in the deal, in which the SA government entered into contracts with several European defence companies in 1999.
The commission did not hold anyone accountable, finding that there was no undue influence in the selection of bidders.
Civil society organisations Corruption Watch and the Right2Know Campaign had brought an application to have the report of the commission be reviewed and set aside.
In handing down judgment Wednesday, Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said it’s clear that the Commission failed to fully probe the matters it had been mandated to do.
“The questions posed to the witnesses were hardly the questions of an evidence leader seeking to determine the truth,” Mlambo charged.
Mlambo said the court is “fortified in their view that the inquiry the commission was called upon to undertake never materialised.”
“It is clear that the commission failed to inquire fully and comprehensively into the issues which it was required to investigate on the basis of its terms of reference. This is evident from the failure to examine the DP report or the evidence which emerged from the Schabir Shaik trial, which it refused to admit.”
“No attempt was made to confront controversial businessman Fana Hlongwane’s witness statement,” which, Mlambo said, “left out key information concerning payments made to him.”
“Whether uncontested evidence reveals so manifest a set of errors of law, a clear failure to test evidence of key witnesses, a refusal to take account of documentary evidence which contained the most serious allegations which were relevant to its inquiry, the principle of legality dictates only one conclusion – that the findings of such a commission must be set aside,” Mlambo said.
Former president Thabo Mbeki along with former ministers Trevor Manuel, Alec Erwin, Mosiuoa Lekota and Ronnie Kasrils were some of the witnesses who testified at the commission.
