Photo by Russell Roberts | Jeff Radebe

Arms deal inquiry - Officials axed

Barely eight months into the commission’s work, William Baloyi, the commission’s spokesman, has confirmed to the FM that both lawyers are “no longer available to serve” for reasons that cannot be disclosed.

Advocates Vas Soni and Sthembiso Mdladla, two of the three advocates responsible for “leading and assessing evidence” brought before the commission established to investigate the arms deal, and hand-picked by the commission chairman, Judge Willie Seriti, have been removed.

Barely eight months into the commission’s work, William Baloyi, the commission’s spokesman, has confirmed to the FM that both lawyers are “no longer available to serve” for reasons that cannot be disclosed. He says the process of finding replacements for Mvuseni Ngubane (the commission secretary, who died two weeks ago), Soni and Mdladla is at an advanced stage and that Jeff Radebe’s ministry of justice & constitutional development will assist the commission with finalising the appointments.

The FM has established that after a routine vetting process of the two, it was discovered that Soni had failed to disclose that, back in 2008, he had acted for Thint, the local subsidiary of French arms company Thales, in its legal battle against the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP).

In 2005, after the conviction of Schabir Shaik for fraud and corruption, the court held that Thint had been complicit in some of those crimes. The NDPP under Vusi Pikoli then instituted charges of fraud and corruption against then deputy president Jacob Zuma and Thint .

As part of their investigation the Scorpions were granted more than 20 search warrants . These were for residences associated with Zuma, the local offices of Thint and Michael Hulley, Zuma’s lawyer. During the execution of these warrants , 93000 documents were seized. Zuma and Hulley initially launched a successful application against the granting of the warrants , but it was later overturned.

Thint brought a similar application seeking to set aside the search and seizure warrants , but this too was dismissed.

It’s on these matters that Soni was found to have failed to disclose the fact that he had prepared a replying affidavit on behalf of Thint . Seriti is understood to have approached Soni a fortnight ago about the apparent conflict of interest. Soni was asked to explain his involvement with Thint and why he had failed to bring this to the commission’s attention .

Soni is said to have explained that, as the senior evidence leader, he believed he would not be playing a major role ­ unlike the three judges who would be performing most of the critical functions in the commission.

Soni said the work was largely dealing with the legal principles surrounding the concept of what constituted legal privilege during the raid, and not the merits of whether or not Shaik had solicited a bribe on behalf of Zuma. He did not think that was a conflict of interest.

When contacted by the FM, Soni refused to be drawn into details about the informal discussion . When asked if he had been told of his removal, he said he had not .

In the case of Mdladla, after a similar “clearance process” assisted in part by newspaper reports from the Kwa Zulu Natal-based Mercury, it was discovered that the provincial government had paid the advocate R2, 4m to conduct an inquiry into “ineffective policing” in the province in 2005. However, as chairman, he had failed to submit a final report after almost six years.

When asked by the FM why he had not submitted a report, Mdladla said he was not prepared to “provide comment”. However, on the issue of his removal from the commission, like Soni, he said he was unaware of it .

The removal of Soni and Mdladla is just the latest in a string of crises involving changes to the commission’s personnel . First Judge Willem van der Merwe resigned, citing “personal reasons”. A fortnight ago Ngubane, the commission’s secretary, was found dead in what appeared to be a suicide.

There are two months left before the July 30 deadline for members of the public to make submissions to the commission. With the removal of Soni and Mdladla and finding a replacement for Ngubane, it is possible that the lack of continuity among the commission’s personnel could hamper its work.