The Supreme Court of Appeal heard yesterday that auditor-general Shauket Fakie had not willfully breached a high court order forcing him to hand over documents relating to the government’s multibillion rand-arms deal.

The appeal court was hearing an argument by Fakie in terms of a court order that found him, among others, in contempt of court over the documents.

The Pretoria High Court judgment declared that Fakie failed to comply with an earlier court order ordering him to give C²I² Systems certain documents pertaining to the arms procurement process.

C²I², owned by Richard Young, was a bidder in the arms deal for the supply of two sub-systems of the combat suite for navy corvettes.

Legal counsel for Fakie, Gilbert Marcus, submitted that by the time of the second application by Young’s military technology company, there was compliance with the court order in four of the five categories of documents that had to be released.

“There was no culpable breach of the order,” Marcus said.

He also said that the auditor-general had started compiling documents in terms of the court order after parties consulted on the relevant documents needed — which became known as the “reduced record”.

However, he said, there was disagreement over the fifth set, the “draft reports”.

Marcus submitted that in this regard there was no breach of the original court order and it was not willfully submitted late.

The hearing continues.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Business Day.