Friday, 21 August - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za) Page 1 – Plans to formalise taxi industry
Page 1 – Covid-19 affecting SA’s banking sector
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 2 – R35M FAKE GOODS BUST
Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za)
Page 1 – Busy time for retiring CEO of Gold Fields Page 1 – Massmart warns of huge losses
Citizen (www.citizen.co.za)
Page 5 – Aviation authority mum on contract
Page 9 – SIU examines coronavirus contracts worth R5bn
Mail & Guardian (www.mg.co.za) Page 4 – Unpacking the PPE bonanza Page 5 – Bars survive with gamblers’ luck
News24 (www.news24.co.za)
Covid-19 wrap: South Korea infections 'in full swing', parts of Croatia declared virus risk areas
Plans to formalise taxi industry
Minister says lekgotla is geared towards re-imagining industry towards the future
Pretoria News
21 Aug 2020
SIVIWE FEKETHA
GC
ISA DEMONSTRATION of vehicle scrapping during the Department of Transport’s launch of the National Taxi Lekgotla in Germiston yesterday. |
SOUTH African National Taxi Council (Santaco) president Phillip Taaibosch has slammed how the government has abandoned its own formalisation and empowerment plans for the taxi industry decades into the democratic dispensation.
Taaibosch was speaking yesterday during the launch of the national taxi public discourse platform by the Transport Department in Germiston. It is geared towards formalising the industry and ensuring its increased safety and convenience for commuters through government support.
The platform has been created as the build-up to the National Taxi Lekgotla scheduled for October where the formalisation, empowerment and modernisation programme of the industry will be crafted.
Taaibosch said the 1996 national transport task team, which was set up by the then transport minister Dullah Omar, had focused on the unification of the industry, eradication of violence and economic emancipation but that the government over the years has ignored the
recommendations of the task team over the years.
“This has broken our trust in the government. SA is now in the sixth administration with 25 years of democracy, but the taxi industry remains unsubsidised. This is despite it accounting for 70% of the transportation of the employees, the majority of whom are government employees,” he said.
He said the taxi industry continued to suffer due to being financed at high interest rates by banks for vehicles with little assistance from the government.
He, however, praised the current administration on its efforts to ensure that empowerment and formalisation plans for the industry were done and accompanied by consultation.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has called on the taxi industry to play an active role in assisting the government in ensuring the industry was both formalised and regulated.
“The time of flexing the muscle in the discourse and not talking and assisting in what needs to happen, I think we should put it in our back banner. This is the process we are starting in the department, and it is not a reaction but something we planned from day one,” Mbalula said.
The planned taxi lekgotla would focus on re-imagining the taxi industry for the future, where it would be a major player in the economy, adding that its current challenges required “our collective wisdom”, said Mbalula.
“Unity of the industry remains a pervasive challenge as violence and conflict driven by turf wars, and leadership contestations continue unabated,” he said.
Mbalula said the lekgotla would also have to come up with an empowerment model that would see real operators being the beneficiaries.
“We have committed to re-imagining the taxi recapitalisation programme such that the real beneficiaries of this massive public investment are taxi operators rather than commercial banks, retailers and other corporates,” he said.
Covid-19 affecting SA’s banking sector
Standard, Nedbank take earnings knock
Pretoria News
21 Aug 2020
SANDILE MCHUNU sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za
BANKS are in the eye of the Covid19 storm as Standard Bank yesterday slammed brakes on dividend payments while Nedbank warned its earnings could plummet up to 72 percent.
Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by asset, said its profits fell during the six months to end June, with headline earnings per share falling 43 percent to 473.8 cents a share.
The bank said that its banking operations reported headline earnings of R7.7 billion, down 40 percent on those recorded during the corresponding period last year and a return on equity of 9.5 percent.
Chief executive Sim Tshabalala said that the bank’s balance sheet growth was constrained.
He said the first half of 2020 has been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic globally and the distressing human and economic cost thereof.
“During this time, we have remained steadfast in support of our clients, our employees and the communities in the countries we operate in.
“The group’s strong capital and liquidity positions going into this crisis have allowed us to provide significant temporary relief to clients without constraining our ability to lend to existing and new clients or support new projects,” Tshabalala said. He said the bank would not declare a dividend.
The bank said its headline earnings declined 44 percent to R7.54bn with South Africa operations reporting a 72 percent decline as the pandemic exacerbated an already difficult environment.
The performance was, however, offset by Africa Regions, which delivered 11 percent growth in earnings and 7 percent on a constant currency basis.
The group said its credit impairment charges surged to R11.3bn from R4.2bn last year.
Tshabalala said the considerable uncertainty drove an Emerging Market risk-off stance for foreign investors and sub-Saharan Africa experienced record capital outflows and financial conditions tightened.
Victor von Reiche, a portfolio manager at Citadel, said the biggest driver of earnings decline was a combination of factors specifically related to the personal & business banking (PBB) franchise.
“A significant increase in credit impairments, which more than doubled, was amplified by revenue slow down due to lower net interest income as the Reserve Bank aggressively cut interest rates which impacted net interest margins,” Von Reiche said.
Credit impairment charges in PBB increased to R8.6bn compared to R3.7bn while revenues declined by 1 percent to R35.1bn .
Von Reiche said non-interest revenue surprised on the upside, supported by growth in trading revenues and the net result was a 60 percent drop in earnings in PBB.
Meanwhile, Nedbank said yesterday that its profit for the half year that ended June would fall between 67 and 72 percent from the same period last year. It will be announcing its half yearly results on August 26.
Standard Bank shares declined 0.98 percent on the JSE to close at R108.63.
R35M FAKE GOODS BUST
The Star Early Edition
21 Aug 2020
BOITUMELO METSING boitumelo.metsing@inl.co.za
(ANA)POLICE and the SANDF raided a
counterfeit manufacturing factory with machines and fake goods with an estimated value of R35 million in the Joburg CBD yesterday. | ITUMELENG ENGLISH African News
Agency
SEWING machines and clothing brand logos were among items found when police pounced on what was believed to be a fake goods manufacturing plant in the Joburg CBD.
The stash, with an estimated value of R35 millon, was seized from a factory on the busy corner of Troye and Jeppe streets, which came to a halt when law enforcement raided the premises yesterday.
The police had acted on a tip-off. Joburg police district spokesperson Captain Jeff Phora said:
“We have confiscated Adidas, Nike and various brands that you normally find on the streets of Joburg being sold at very cheap prices.”
The 14-storey building was filled with printable label logos of different brands, plain T-shirts, sneakers and bags used to create the counterfeits. Police also found sewing machines and heat-press machines used to print on clothing.
Phora said three suspects were arrested and were expected to appear in court soon.
The police had teamed up with the SA National Defence Force to avoid a confrontation with foreign nationals.
A similar raid by the Joburg Metro Police Department in the area last year had ended in a violent clash between law officers and foreign nationals.
Busy time for retiring CEO of Gold Fields
Business Day
21 Aug 2020
Allan Seccombe Resources Writer
/Freddy MavundaBusy to the end: Retiring Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland says he will spend the rest of his time with the company nurturing the nine mines in the group.
Nick Holland, who is stepping down as CEO of Gold Fields after 13 years, is set for a busy end to his tenure.
Asked in an interview about his plans, Holland, a 24-year veteran of the miner, said the rest of his time with the company would be spent nurturing the nine mines in the group that were set to deliver up to 2.5-million ounces a year for a decade and keep cash flows as high as possible.
“I’m a shareholder in Gold Fields, and a reasonable percentage of my net worth is in this company,” he said.
Holland, who had served as CFO and CEO at the company, with mines in SA, Australia, Ghana and Peru, would step down in 2021, having reached the gold miner’s retirement age, chair Cheryl Carolus said on Thursday.
“The global search for a suitable replacement will commence soon,” Carolus said.
On the Gold Fields board is another mining veteran, Terence Goodlace, who has spent years in senior management roles at Gold Fields and was the CEO at Impala Platinum. He is highly regarded and would be a logical internal appointment if he wanted the job.
Holland became the lightning rod in 2013 for executive remuneration.
Mike Schroder, then portfolio manager at Old Mutual’s gold fund, tore into his R45m payment that year, accusing him of sitting pretty.
“Your personal greed is the biggest obstacle for turning off this trend. Come down with the pay packages or get out,” Schroder said in a more general comment about executive
remuneration.
In 2019, Holland was paid $4.1m or R71m. By comparison, AngloGold Ashanti CEO Kelvin Dushnisky, who similarly managed a portfolio in SA and globally, earned $6.3m or R90m.
Dushnisky announced his own departure late in July.
Holland will turn 63 in September 2021, and according to company policy he must retire.
He had no plans after Gold Fields, he said.
Holland said that his entire focus for the next year would be delivering on strategy and starting the new $860m Salares Norte project in Chile. Gold Fields will spend $500m on Salares in 2021, coming mostly from internal cash generation.
“I’m relatively young and energetic. I really love this industry, so anything is possible,” said Holland.
“It’s been a long stint as CEO
at Gold Fields, 13 years plus against five or seven years as an industry average. But things will evolve in the fullness of time,” he said.
One of his legacies will be to deliver the historically problematic South Deep mine in SA, which has missed many production targets and cost more than R32bn in purchase and development capital since 2006.
Holland said that despite the setback caused by the lockdown in SA he was “more optimistic about South Deep than I have been for a number of years”.
Under Holland’s leadership, Gold Fields unbundled three deep-level gold mines in SA to form Sibanye-Stillwater as a separately listed company in 2013.
Sibanye has gone on to become the world’s largest source of platinum group metals, building off its base in gold.
Gold Fields has grown strongly in Australia with smart deals with Barrick Gold and others to make it the largest source of the company’s gold.
Gold Fields is one of the former SA gold mining giants, which has spread its operations offshore and reduced its exposure to a single deep-level mine in SA — a strategy Holland helped drive.
AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s number three gold producer and, for decades, the largest miner of SA gold, is close to completing the sale of its last operating assets in SA to Harmony Gold, marking the end of its presence in the country of its formation.
IT’S BEEN A LONG STINT AS CEO AT GOLD FIELDS, 13 YEARS PLUS AGAINST FIVE OR SEVEN YEARS AS AN INDUSTRY AVERAGE
Massmart warns of huge losses
• But retailer is benefiting from its expense control efforts
Business Day
21 Aug 2020
Karl Gernetzky and Katharine Child
/Financial MailGo-to retailer: Game sells one in every three large appliances bought in SA, says parent Massmart.
Retail group Massmart, the owner of Makro and Game, has warned that its half-year loss will increase to as much as R1.2bn as the Covid-19 pandemic hit sales. The company’s net loss widened as much as 44% from a first-half loss of R836.1m in 2019, with the company saying the coronavirus had added to its woes.
Retail group Massmart, owner of Makro and Game, has warned that its half-year loss will increase to as much as R1.2bn as the Covid-19 pandemic hit sales.
The company’s net loss widened as much as 44% from a first-half loss of R836.1m in 2019, with the company saying that the coronavirus has added to its woes.
The group expects a net loss of between R1.12bn and R1.2bn in the six months to June 28.
The loss is similar to the 2019 fullyear financial performance.
However, it said its expense control efforts and cost saving, as part of its turnaround plan announced in January, are reaping benefits and increasing profit margins.
Its huge loss comes even as it closed all 23 DionWired tech stores in March and reabsorbed the staff into its other brands.
Massmart said it is investigating a sale of Masscash stores, the discount chain that includes Jumbo and Cambridge Food. This year it has closed 11 stores and retrenched staff at those brands.
Game was one of the drivers of the 2019 loss, which, together with DionWired, was almost R700m. Massmart is currently in retrenchment talks to cut as many as 1,800 Game staff.
Massmart has said it will keep Game open as it sells one in three large appliances in SA and has a wide footprint in smaller towns. This year, Game reintroduced clothing to its stores, and implemented new software to improve product availability and online sales. Its IT systems were more than 40 years old.
Gryphon analyst Casparus Treurnicht said, “Game needs a makeover. It is operating a massive store space.”
He said it faces increased competition from Naspersowned online retailer Takealot.
Game is planning to relaunch a new-look store at Mall of Africa later in 2020.
Treurnicht said Game sells duplicate items available at Makro. “Makro seems to be a better fit. The solution is probably operating under a single brand.” He said difficulties faced by Massmart in SA are structural and linked to the poor economy. “My sense is that there is too much retail space out there in general.”
For the 26-week period to June 28, Massmart’s total sales amounted to R39.6bn, a 9.7%
decline from the same period in 2019. SA store sales fell 10.6%.
Retailers that sell general merchandise or big ticket items, such as washing machines and treadmills, typically struggle in poor economic times as consumers tighten their belts and focus on food, clothing and medicine.
The group said it was also affected by writedowns and retrenchment costs during the period, but its cost-control efforts are yielding results.
Massmart’s share closed up 2.53% to R21.47, having fallen 59.12% so far in 2020.
Aviation authority mum on contract
LANDING: SA CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY CITES CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSE
The Citizen (Gauteng)
21 Aug 2020
Sipho Mabena – siphom@citizen.co.za
No updates on instrument landing systems’ renewal.
Agreement on system guiding aircraft onto runway in poor visibility signed in April.
The SA Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has remained mum on the value of the instrument landing systems’ (ILS) calibration contract, saying this would be in breach of the
nondisclosure clause signed with the service provider.
“If we disclose the service fee agreement, the SA Civil Aviation Authority will be breaching the contract it signed with the service provider, which prohibits disclosure of this and other information,” spokesperson, Kabelo Ledwaba said yesterday.
A service level agreement was concluded with the South African company in April but the European-based calibration aircraft and crew, currently in quarantine, only landed on Monday at OR Tambo International Airport.
“In line with the department of health’s Covid-19 lockdown regulations, the crew is currently quarantined,” Ledwaba said.
Last week, The Citizen reported how pilots were “flying blind” into some of the country’s major airports, due to glitches with the ILS, a system that operates by sending radio waves downrange from the runway end, guiding approaching aircraft onto the runway in poor visibility.
Two of the OR Tambo International Airport’s four ILS instruments were switched off last week because of the lapse in the calibration exemption period, but the aviation authority refuted reports that the airport would be downgraded or closed. The King Shaka International Airport has been downgraded to a lower instrument meteorological usage level as a result of two ILSs being switched off. Other airports affected are the Kruger Mpumalanga
International Airport and George Airport, whose calibration exemption periods have also expired.
“We hope that if all goes according to the plan, calibration should start this coming weekend;
and as per the flight inspection schedule, with the first calibration scheduled for Saturday…
[CAA] wishes to reiterate that the calibration programme will prioritise those airports that require urgent attention,” Ledwaba said.
He appealed to interested parties to exercise patience and afford the flight inspections unit and the service provider space to carry out this essential task.
The aviation authority lost its flight inspections unit Cessna Citation aircraft when it crashed after takeoff in Mossel Bay near George, Western Cape, in January – killing Captain Thabiso Tolo, First Officer Tebogo Lekalakala and Flight Inspector Gugu Comfort Mnguni.
“Given the impact of Covid-19 and the implications it had on the authority’s finances, the plans to buy a new aircraft were derailed and... took a decision to defer the purchase of the aircraft for 12 months as we assess the situation in terms of affordability,” Ledwaba said.
He said as soon as CAA was in a position to buy an aircraft, it would do so without delay.
In the meantime, the interim arrangement would stand until such time as CAA could afford to buy the aircraft.
Contract prohibits disclosure of agreement
SIU examines coronavirus contracts worth R5bn
The Citizen (Gauteng)
21 Aug 2020
Tebogo Tshwane
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is probing just under 660 companies and contracts valued at over R5 billion, over corruption allegations regarding the procurement of goods and services needed for government’s Covid-19 response.
The SIU motivated for a mandate to carry out these investigations after receiving reports about alleged wrongdoing from the director-general in the office of the Gauteng premier, as well as a number of whistleblowers.
The reports have to do with maladministration and corruption in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), hospital and quarantine sites, food parcels, ventilators, motorised wheelchairs and disinfecting equipment.
President Cyril Ramaphosa issued the proclamation last month.
In its presentation before the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in parliament on Wednesday, the SIU said it had units working on investigations across all nine provinces, including five government departments.
The scope of the SIU’s proclamation regarding the investigations is to determine whether the procurement or contracting was done through fair and competitive processes and in line with the applicable legislative or regulatory prescripts.
The SIU will also determine if the parties involved used improper and unlawful means to unduly benefit from Covid-19 contracts and if there was any fraud or wasteful expenditure.
The SIU’s work is limited to allegations of irregular Covid-19 procurements that occurred between 1 January and 23 July.
Of the 658 matters under investigation, 157 were identified under the Gauteng health department amounting to R2.2 billion.
This is followed by the Eastern Cape, which has the largest number of matters under
investigation (350 companies and contracts to the value of at least R2 billion). Among these is its education department’s decision to enter into a R500 million contract to lease 55 000 tablets and develop an e-learning platform for pupils. In KwaZulu-Natal, the SIU
is investigating 79 matters worth R557 million in two departments.
In the Western Cape, five contracts or companies are being investigated for bid manipulation and leaked bid documents, the sale of fraudulent hand sanitisers and irregular procurement.
The sum under investigation is over R121 million.
SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi confirmed that in Limpopo the unit was also looking into the R40 million Beitbridge border fence project and the shack settlement development, in which 40 shacks were reportedly erected by the provincial government for R2.4 million.
Responding to allegations that the SIU itself had procured masks for its staff members irregularly, Mothibi said the auditor-general was looking into the matter urgently and that a report would be provided to Scopa as soon as it is available.
SIU will determine if parties used unlawful means to benefit
Unpacking the PPE bonanza
More than R10-billion has been spent on PPE. But healthcare workers say they are not getting enough masks and other gear to keep them safe from Covid-19. Sarah Smit, Paddy Harper and the M&G Data Desk dug into the numbers
Mail & Guardian
21 Aug 2020
More than 12 000 people have died of Covid-19 in South Africa. Nearly 250 of those were healthcare workers. To protect them and other essential workers, the government has spent R10-billion on procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) .
Since then, a network of unqualified, barely qualified and undercapacitated companies have dug into the PPE tender pie. Some of these are allegedly government employees.
The law on who can tender for state work is simple. According to the Public Administration Management Act, a state employee, as defined by the Public Service Act, may not conduct business with the state or be a director of a company doing business with the state. This includes parttime employees, says department of public service and administration spokesperson Kamogelo Mogotsi: “There is no distinction and they [part-time state employees] don’t fall outside the category of ‘employee’.”
The Mail & Guardian, however, encountered people who said their tenders were acceptable because they were only part-time state employees, with one saying this meant he was
“protected by the law”. Mogotsi squashed this idea: “Their interpretation and understanding of it would, therefore, be incorrect.”
PPE in the Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape premier’s office released a list of more than 600 contracts. This included 10 state employees who were awarded more than
R23-million in PPE tenders.
Chris Lukhope, whose company Amabongwe Building and Civils was awarded a R1.9- million contract by the department of education for hand sanitisers and other gear, said he has never been a state employee. “That seems bad. It is a big mistake.”
Spokesperson for the Eastern Cape treasury, Pumelele Godongwana, told the M&G that it has removed four people from its list of state employees. Lukhope is one of them.
Bandile Mbewu, whose company My Like General was awarded a R7.5million tender, the largest won by a supposed public servant, said he was no longer a councillor. He resigned as a Democratic Alliance councillor in February 2019. Mbewu told the M&G that he obtained an affidavit to prove this.
Isaac Sabuka’s company, Afrika Rise Investments, managed to rake in a R3-million contract.
Sabuka said he is not a state employee, but “a deployee”. He is a part-time councillor at the Mbizana local municipality. “I have declared my business each and every financial year,” he said. “I am protected by the law that says I am allowed to do business with the state because I
am not a full-time employee … I can do business with the state, but not with the municipality where I am deployed.”
Bathembu Mgudlwa is seemingly in the same boat. He told the M&G that he too works for the state, but in a part-time capacity at Frere hospital in East London. Mgudlwa’s company, Shabar Holdings, received a R1.5-million PPE contract from the provincial department of education.
A number of tenders have also been red-flagged because they went to companies registered only this year. The M&G spoke to some of the company directors, like Luxolo Makasi, the sole director of Acid Prints. According to the Eastern Cape government’s list, the company was awarded a R259 870 contract by the provincial department of health. The company was registered only in February. But Makasi said he was experienced enough to apply for the tender. Acid Prints’ contract with the Eastern Cape health department was cancelled because of delays by his suppliers, Makasi said.
The role of ‘coincidence’
Businesswomen Lulama Jakavula said she registered cleaning company Yolo Empire in March. The R2.9-million contract to provide PPE to 29 schools in the Eastern Cape came as a
“coincidence”, Jakavula said. “It just came through. That’s it. At the time of me registering the company, I hadn’t really decided what I was going to do with it … Now boom — this whole thing came.”
Jakavula said tendering after seeing the department’s expression of interest was a “no
brainer”. But she conceded that delivering the PPE was tough. “I really didn’t have money to do it. When it started they said we must deliver within 48 hours, I think … I’m actually still doing final purchases with my schools.”
Godongwana said awarding tenders to newly formed businesses does not automatically represent a fraud alert. “However, all procurement relating to Covid-19 will be reviewed, and further investigated if anomalies are found.”
He added that the provincial treasury is busy investigating all Covid-19related procurement.
“We expect to conclude some of the investigation by the end of August. As in any investigation, it would be prejudicial to give out details.”
Mandilakhe Getye said he didn’t even know his construction and supply company, Ibasathi Projects, was awarded a R1.37-million contract by the department until the list started making the rounds publicly. Getye said he has been trying to contact the department, but to no avail. “I haven’t gotten the order as we speak. I haven’t done anything yet.”
In response to M&G questions, the treasury agreed it was concerning that state employees and companies registered in 2020 were awarded PPE tenders by the Eastern Cape
government.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) briefed Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts this week, noting that 658 contracts were under the microscope. Among the details include some suppliers being paid without delivering, price-gouging by suppliers, and officials replacing service providers with entities belonging to their families or friends.
Gauteng
One of the biggest PPE tenders dished out by Gauteng was to Dinaane Consulting Services, owned by Rirhandzu Maluleke. According to the province’s procurement list, Maluleke was awarded a R116.9million tender by the Gauteng health department for surgical masks and hand sanitisers. The company was registered in May 2016; Maluleke is its sole director.
Company records show that Dinaane was in the process of being deregistered from July 2018, but its deregistration was cancelled in mid-june this year.
Maluleke did not respond to calls and messages by the M&G.
The PPE scandal in Gauteng has already claimed scalps, with people in the ANC and government placed on suspension.
Kwazulu-natal
In Kwazulu-natal, a communications company that was paid R6-million by the department of social development for blankets that were not delivered is listed among those on the Covid-19 procurement list, released last week.
The province spent R22-million on the blankets, paying up to R559 a unit to a group of handpicked contractors, who were paid before the blankets were delivered, according to a forensic audit. The blankets retail for about R250 each.
Purchases of hand sanitiser and other gear totalling R19-million have also proven fraudulent, and have led to the arrest of a number of social welfare staff, including its acting director general, by the Hawks.
This week, the SIU announced it is investigating 22 Covid-19 contracts entered into by the Kwazulu-natal social development department, totalling R43.6-million. The SIU is also probing 57 contracts valued at R514-million by the province’s department of education.
Seriti report slammed by activists
Last year, the high court set aside the findings of the commission of inquiry into the arms deal scandal. Now activists are calling on the judicial conduct committee to investigate the judges in charge
Mail & Guardian
21 Aug 2020
Sarah Smit
Ayear after their report into the so-called arms deal was set aside, retired judges Willie Seriti and Thekiso Hendrick Musi now face a complaint of gross incompetence for their roles in the tainted investigation.
Earlier this month, public interest organisations Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets submitted a joint complaint to the judicial conduct committee accusing the pair of failing to discharge their duties as commissioners when they investigated the multibillion- rand arms procurement scandal.
The complaint further suggests that the judges’ actions may amount to criminal conduct, contending that the commission’s final report “materially misled the public”, helping to cover up alleged corruption related to the arms deal.
The Seriti commission, appointed by former president Jacob Zuma in 2011, was meant to investigate the government’s controversial purchase of weaponry including corvettes, submarines, light utility helicopters and other light fighter aircraft. The commission initially was costed at R40-million, but, after four years, cost taxpayers R137-million.
The commissioners had more than three shipping containers of evidence at their disposal to trawl through, but the commission eventually concluded that there had been nothing wrong with the deal that cost an estimated R63.5-billion.
The deal was widely criticised because there was no immediate military threat to South Africa. Commentators saw the country’s deepening unemployment crisis as a far more pressing threat at the time.
Some of the equipment purchased through the arms deal, including three submarines, was allegedly non-functional or ineffectively utilised. When the deal was announced, 65 000 new jobs were promised as a result of it. But only 12 965 jobs were ultimately created.
Last year, a scathing high court judgment set aside Seriti’s 767-page report, concluding that the commission “failed manifestly to enquire into key issues as is to be expected of a reasonable commission”. The court case was uncontested.
At the time of the unprecedented judgment, Seriti stood by the report.
In an interview with radio station 702, the retired judge said: “My report is there. That report is close to a thousand pages. That explains exactly what I did, how I did that and why I didn’t do certain things. I cannot add or subtract from that … Every conclusion that we arrived at on all the five or six points of reference, there is a full discussion. And we referred to the
evidence of witnesses who came before us.”
But the court judgment, and the recent complaint, both conclude that Seriti and his co-
commissioner, Judge Musi, failed to gather and adequately consider evidence relevant to their investigation.
In an affidavit supporting the joint complaint, investigative researcher Paul Holden outlines many perceived holes in the inquiry.
These include the commission’s failure to review more than three million pages of evidence provided to it by the Special Investigating Unit and failure to access the records of criminal proceedings brought against Zuma, Schabir Shaik and Tony Yengeni for matters related to the arms deal. Key witnesses were not cross-examined, while some were never called to give their evidence.
Holden adds: “Conversely, noncritical witnesses were frequently allowed to offer their
opinions, and, in certain cases, were actively solicited to give opinions on matters they had no knowledge of.”
At the time, experts, including Holden, refused to appear before the commission protesting its conduct and alleging a cover-up.
In his affidavit, Holden contends that the commission’s failure had two profound
implications: First, it brought the judiciary into disrepute. It also imperilled the state’s ability to pursue criminal charges against those implicated in alleged corruption.
“The commission was appointed in 2011. Its findings were published in 2016. It took a further three years for the findings to be set aside in 2019. Cumulatively, the commission has wasted eight valuable years and thus placed a good deal of conduct outside the reach of potential criminal prosecution,” Holden’s affidavit reads.
“The prejudice to the South African public is obvious and profound and can only serve to amplify concerns about the independence and competence of the judiciary and its members.”
Holden contends that the failure of Judges Seriti and Musi to conduct a meaningful
investigation into the arms deal constitutes a prima facie case of wilful misconduct or gross negligence.
He adds that there are “clear and worrying signs” that the pair may be guilty of criminal conduct, but says this can only be determined through further investigation.
In their complaint, Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets ask that the chief justice refers any potential criminal conduct to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.
Covid-19 wrap: South Korea infections 'in full swing', parts of Croatia declared virus risk areas
https://www.news24.com/news24/world/news/covid-19-wrap-south-korea-infections-in-full-swing- parts-of-croatia-declared-virus-risk-areas-20200820
