Zondo commission hit with another no show
Former State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser failed to show up for his testimony on Wednesday morning.
Arthur Fraser, former director general of the State Security Agency. Picture: Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Jaco Marais
The Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture will hear parliamentary oversight-related evidence from Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe after former State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser failed to arrive for his testimony on Wednesday morning.
During the proceedings, Fraser’s lawyer, Rapulane Kgoroeadira, brought an application to the commission to obtain documents from the SSA.
“From as early as August last year, the application [Fraser] sought the disclosure and declassification of certain documents from the respondents [Dlodlo and Jafta]. The bottom line that there has been no compliance to that request, forcing him to bring this application to the commission,” he said.
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“To the extent that they [opponents] undertook to provide us with the documents, provided that we give them the particularities, we have done that. As far as we are concerned, there is no matter to be argued any more today.
“They need to apply their minds to the documents that we provided them and if they’re uncertain of what it is that we really need, then there can be further engagements. That, chairperson, is my instruction and that’s where the discussions went.”
SSA legal representative Bheki Ndebele argued that Fraser’s application was a waste of the commission’s time and the matter must be dismissed, he said the agency was willing to provide Fraser with the “highly confidential” documents.
The Zondo commission has postponed the application until Fraser has received the documents he requested.
Meanwhile, Mantashe will give testimony in his capacity as the national chairperson and former secretary-general of the ANC.
READ MORE: Norma Mngoma forgives ex Malusi Gigaba ‘not that he deserves it’
The commission was hit with another no show for the second day running when former finance minister Malusi Gigaba’s estranged wife, Norma Mngoma’s, legal representatives informed the commission’s chair Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo she would no longer appear.
The commission was due to hear testimony from her relating to the Gupta family and her husband’s dealings with the fugitive brothers.
