Short of funds to fight his court battle, Bantu Holomisa has asked the president for his Transkei military pension, reports Stefaans Brmmer
BANTU HOLOMISA, gearing up for a bruising and expensive court battle to be reinstated as an African National Congress member, this week asked President Nelson Mandela to give him his Transkei military pension.
Holomisa’s lawyers served papers on the ANC and filed them with the Rand Supreme Court on Thursday, demanding that the axed deputy minister be reinstated with “full rights and privileges”.
The lawyers will argue that these rights include Holomisa’s seat in Parliament, which he had to vacate after losing his ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) appeal in September.
The court action, which names Minister of Public Service Zola Skweyiya, ANC national chair Jacob Zuma and the ANC itself as respondents, argues that the ANC had been “fatally biased” in its decision to expel him. Zuma chaired the NEC meeting, while Skweyiya was chair of the ANC disciplinary hearing that made the original decision.
The ANC has 15 court days to respond, failing which the matter will be set down for hearing on December 3.
Holomisa’s attorney, Gordon Aarons of Shapiro Aarons, confirmed this week that the papers, a bulky 86 pages of affidavit, had taken a team of three lawyers, including a senior counsel, “several weeks” of solid work to prepare.
Holomisa, unemployed since the loss of his seat in Parliament, will have a staggering legal bill to meet. He told the Mail & Guardian the cost of preparing the papers alone could be as much as R150 000. Should the matter go to court, as is likely, the legal bill could run into hundreds of thousands more.
Holomisa said he was in the process of raising money – and has had offers from “sympathisers who include ANC members” to start collecting. But Holomisa told them “no one should be collecting money in my name unless a fund is properly constituted”.
And Holomisa confirmed he had appealed to Mandela in Cape Town this week to remove impediments so that his Transkei military pension, which he believes he has been entitled to since 1994, can be paid out. Holomisa said the pension would be worth over R200 000 in back pay, as well as R7 000 per month.
Holomisa, at the time military ruler of the Transkei, resigned as chief of the Transkei Defence Force in early 1994 when the ANC asked him to make himself available as an ANC election candidate.
Holomisa said he applied for early retirement in terms of the Transkei Defence Act, which he believes qualified him for the pension. But, he added, the new Eastern Cape government balked at paying in mid-1994, and he appealed to Mandela.
“The president was sympathetic from the word go. He said former homeland leaders and [former president FW] de Klerk was getting that, so Holomisa should also get it.”
Holomisa said nothing came of it after Mandela referred the matter to Minister of Defence Joe Modise. He appealed to Mandela again this week.
Mandela’s legal advisor, Nicholas Haysom, confirmed Holomisa saw Mandela “to see whether there isn’t a way for him to get the pension”. He said Mandela was sympathetic “provided there is a legal way”, but that he was awaiting reports from the departments of Defence and Finance on the legality of the pay-out.
The Supreme Court, in a similar case, interpreted the Transkei Defence Act as saying voluntary retirement with pension benefits was “permissible only within certain periods”. In terms of that decision Holomisa did not qualify, Haysom said.