CAPE TOWN — Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s application to have arms deal critic Terry Crawford-Browne sequestrated over a R1m legal debt was postponed in the Cape High Court yesterday.

Crawford-Browne requested the postponement after saying he would apply for legal aid to help him oppose Manuel’s action.

In a petition he said the application was “malicious” and urged that charges of abuse of public office be laid against the finance minister.

The local representative of lobby group Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, Crawford-Browne launched a campaign in 2001 that included a high court attempt to review and set aside Manuel’s decision to enter into foreign loans to pay for the multibillion-rand arms purchase.

The action was first dismissed with costs in March 2002 and Crawford-Browne appealed in May that year. This was dismissed with costs by the court.

His appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal in August last year was also dismissed with costs.

Manuel applied for a writ to be served on Crawford-Browne in December last year. Bills of cost amounted to R915858.

Crawford-Browne has remained a staunch critic of the arms deal and its consequent offset programmes that contractors have undertaken in exchange for winning deals.

In July, he said arms-offset deals were like a “pyramid scheme” that enticed governments into buying expensive weapons they did not need on the promise of inward foreign investment.

Treasury director general Lesetja Kganyago said a writ was issued to retrieve this amount from Crawford-Browne, but the Sheriff could not find moveable property to satisfy the writ and Crawford-Browne said he had no assets.

Crawford-Browne had been “less than frank” in advising about what moveable assets or disposable property he owned, Kganyago said.

Crawford-Browne lived in a house in an upmarket area of Cape Town that had been bought last year for R666000 and was registered in his wife’s name, Kganyago said.

Kganyago said the purchase of the property should be investigated to establish the origin of the funds and whether Crawford-Browne contributed to the financing of the purchase of the house.

Judge Ntlupheko Yekiso granted the order to postpone the matter until November 2.

With acknowledgments to Chris van Gass and Business Day.