The Citizen (Gauteng)

Zuptas, Brown request more time

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Legal representa­tives of former president Jacob Zuma, the fugitive Gupta family and former public enterprise­s minister Lynne Brown yesterday requested the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture to afford them more time to examine allegation­s against their clients.

The advocates said they had short notice from the inquiry to prepare themselves on behalf of their clients.

“The rules as you are aware require us to be given reasonable notice … you have done a lot of work to prepare, we simply propose to put in place a reasonable time frame in which to deal with the evidence, with me referring to the evidence of Vytjie Mentor and Themba Maseko, but broadly to my learned friends here to include future pieces of evidence that may require cross-examinatio­n or evidence from our clients,” said advocate Michael Hellens, representi­ng Ajay Gupta.

Hellens is tasked with interrogat­ing the evidence from former government spokespers­on Maseko and former ANC MP Mentor.

Maseko told former public protector Thuli Madonsela that at the time he was CEO of the Government Communicat­ion and Informatio­n System (GCIS), Zuma asked him in 2015 to “help” the Guptas who, at the time, were the owners of news channel ANN7 and The New Age newspaper.

Maseko said when he declined to cooperate, Ajay told him he would be “dealt with”. He was later fired from GCIS.

Zuma’s advocate, Muzi Sikhakhane, said he received notices about his client from the commission on August 3.

“What we request is documentat­ion that will make it easy for all of us to know the case and its implicatio­ns on our clients. We received a 103-page document when we requested it on Friday … we want to place it on record that there will be no delays.”

Earlier, head of the commission’s legal team Paul Pretorius outlined the terms of reference.

He said this week would also see evidence on procuremen­t by National Treasury being presented at the commission by Ndleleni Willie Mathebula. Mathebula will deal with procuremen­t prescripts and policy.

Towards the end of the week, the commission will hear expert evidence on the state capture phenomenon and a comparativ­e analysis from other countries, said Pretorius. – ANA

 ?? Picture: Michel Bega ?? JACOB ZUMA.
Picture: Michel Bega JACOB ZUMA.

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