Injury prevents Nene from testifying at Zondo commission
AN INJURY to former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and incomplete investigations of former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor’s evidence left the commission of inquiry into state capture without witnesses yesterday.
Nene was issued with a “friendly” summons to appear before the commission but his advocate, Adila Hassan, asked for the sitting to be postponed as her client had an injury in his left ankle that limited his movement.
Hassan said Nene ws informed by his doctor not to fly or travel until January.
Commission chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo granted Nene’s application to postpone his testimony due to his co-operation and asked him to return when he had fully recovered.
Advocate Paul Pretorius, who heads the commission’s legal team, said parties implicated in Nene’s evidence had already been informed.
Pretorius said “friendly” summonses were issued to all witnesses after a policy decision by the commission.
Nene resigned last month after his testimony at the commission revealed previously undisclosed meetings with the Guptas.
The hearing will resume on Monday when Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan is scheduled to give evidence.
Yesterday, Justice Zondo warned parties implicated in Mentor’s testimony could face serious implications if they were found to be true.
He warned that Mentor’s evidence was very pertinent and if her testimony was found to be untrue there would be serious consequences.
Mentor was due to testify yesterday or today but her appearance was postponed to the end of November because the commission’s legal team had three incomplete investigations following her testimony in August.
Advocate Mahlape Sello, who is a member of the commission’s legal team, said the results of the investigations would only be available in two weeks.
She said when Mentor testifies on November 30 the commission would deal with whether its investigations contradicted or corroborated her evidence.
In her testimony over three days in August, Mentor implicated former president Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane, the Guptas, then ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, the governing party’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, Hawks officer Captain Mandla Mtolo, controversial businessman Fana Hlongwane and Zuma’s former chief of staff, Laleka Kaunda.
Zondo granted Kaunda, Mtolo and one other implicated party permission to cross-examine Mentor on condition they presented their version of the events narrated by the former chairperson of the National Assembly committee on public enterprises.
Mantashe, now the ANC national chairperson, previously accused Mentor of lying when she testified that she informed him and Duarte of the Guptas’ offer to make her public enterprises minister in 2010.
He told Independent Media in August that his deputy was National Council of Provinces chairperson Thandi Modise and not Duarte at the time.
This week, it emerged that Mantashe will lead the ANC’s delegation to respond to former public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan’s testimony.
She told the commission the party interfered in the appointment of directors of boards of state-owned entities. LAW enforcement officials with private security officials remove people from illegally occupying homes at the Highbury housing development in Kuils River. Last week, 42 people who identified themselves as Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla) military veterans started occupying homes illegally in the housing development. The APLA veterans claimed they had been overlooked for years given preference when it came to the allocation of free housing for military veterans. |