Commission drama: Legal teams clash over scope of Mchunu's corruption defence

Drama unfolded at the Madlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry on Friday night after an evidence leader objected to the manner of the re-examination of suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu by his legal representative.

Advocate Mahlape Sello SC objected to the extent of Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC’s re-examination of Mchunu after he concluded giving evidence at the commission of inquiry investigating allegations of criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.

A visibly exasperated Sello interjected while Ngcukaitobi was re-examining Mchunu.

“Chair, I apologise Mr. Ngcukaitobi, I beg your forgiveness. I have bitten my tongue for a long time, on particularly this that Mr. Ngcukaitobi is ‘re-examining’ the witness. None of that evidence has been led before this commission. The issues that he has spent a significant time speaking to are matters that are going to be dealt with in the second part of the inquiry,” she explained.

Sello said she struggled to understand how the issues on which Ngcukaitobi was re-examining Mchunu could possibly fall under the category of re-examination.

“Any reader of the transcript will see that none of the testimony with regard to that has been led,” she said, adding that she was seeking the commissioners’ guidance.

In his intervention, Justice Madlanga said he was given to understand that the evidence leaders and Mchunu’s legal counsel had reached an agreement that what would be addressed at this stage would be the disbandment only of the Political Killings Task Team by the minister, who was placed on special leave by President Cyril Ramaphosa following explosive allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in July that led to the establishment of the commission.

“I do not quite see, unless you see otherwise, how paragraph 206 relates to the disbandment,” the commission chairperson stated.

In paragraph 206, Mchunu detailed the cancellation of a R360 million contract awarded to attempted murder accused tender tycoon Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s company Medicare24 Tshwane District by the SA Police Service (SAPS) and how former police minister Bheki Cele featured.

Ngcukaitobi responded to Justice Madlanga: “Mr. Chairman, I will do what the commission wishes. But it’s impossible to separate disbandment from its reasons. The primary reason for the accusations that the disbandment was illegal was that it was motivated by an ulterior motive.”

He said it was grossly unfair that Mchunu was at the commission and this was his first opportunity to tell the commission and the country that he is innocent of corruption.

Justice Madlanga disallowed the question on paragraph 206 and Ngcukaitobi ended his re-examination of Mchunu.

Sello said Ngcukaitobi strayed beyond re-examination and that the moment he went beyond the disestablishment of the PKTT he went beyond the parameters of the agreement reached between the evidence leaders and Mchunu’s legal team but these issues will not be found in the transcript in the evidence when it was led by the minister.

She said Ngcukaitobi made references to Matlala and his relationship with Mchunu as well as ANC fixer and businessman Brown Mogotsi and the R360m SAPS contract.

“What has happened is a topsy-turvy process permitting Mchunu to be re-examined on evidence, firstly, that was not led. He’s got his responses to those allegations in the statement, he has not been taken through them, he has not been confronted with any evidence that could be contradicting the positions he assumes in his statement,” Sello explained.

She continued: “Now, on record and in public, he has had the opportunity to clear his name in circumstances where the evidence leaders have not fully articulated properly what the concerns about those issues are. It is exceptionally topsy-turvy.”

The commission will resume next year with its second phase at a date to be announced.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za