FORMER State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser has been denied leave to cross examine several witnesses who implicated him in the commission of inquiry into state capture.
Commission chairperson Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo dismissed Fraser’s application to cross examine former SSA bosses Mzuvukile Maqetuka, Moe Shaik, Lizo Njenje and ex-Cabinet minister Dr. Sydney Mufamadi, who chaired the high-level review panel on the SSA.
Justice Zondo said Fraser did not specify in which parts of their affidavits they implicated him and that his own statements he submitted to the inquiry should have been signed under oath but were not.
”I did consider the submissions that he (Fraser) submitted but as I have indicated I am satisfied that the applicant (Fraser) did not comply with the requirement of the rule in the way in which I have indicated,” he said.
According to Justice Zondo, Fraser should have identified exactly what parts of the affidavits of the witnesses implicated him, which ones he has disputed and which ones he has not disputed, and he needed to have given a full version of his side of the story on all the allegations.
He has said an applicant for leave to cross examine a witness is required to furnish the commission with his full version or account of the events in which that applicant is implicated.
Justice Zondo has said Fraser has not complied with the rule on identifying in the affidavits of the witnesses exactly the paragraphs or parts that he disputes and that implicate him, nor what his version is of these.
Zondo also said Fraser’s version was incomplete without the documents he sought to obtain from the SSA as he needed to comply with the regulations promulgated in terms of the Intelligence Services Act.
Justice Zondo has said the SSA says Fraser has not complied with that in order to obtain the documents he contends he is entitled to.
”He has not explained why he has not done so in circumstances where he told this commission on affidavit that those documents that he sought were very important in order for him to complete his statement and to give this commission a complete picture,” Zondo explained.
“In those circumstances I can see no reason why it can be said that it is in the interest of the work of the commission to grant the applicant leave to cross examine any of these witnesses in the circumstance I have set out in relation to the non-compliance with the rules of the commission.”
He said his decision also considered that there was no explanation of why Fraser’s statement would not be complete without the documents he asked for from the SSA and the commission having given him time to ensure that he secures such documents.
”The SSA undertook to give him such documents and why has he not pursued that. The applicant’s application stands to be dismissed and it is so dismissed,” Justice Zondo said.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za
POLITICAL BUREAU