Mail & Guardian Reporter
THE attorney general’s astounding decision to allow Absa’s senior counsel to help pen the criminal charge sheet against former Absa boss Bob Aldworth while acting in a related civil matter has had some record- breaking spinoffs.
When Aldworth appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court this week it emerged that his lawyers, on seeing the 39-page charge sheet co-authored by Etienne du Toit SC, decided to file a request for further particulars which ran to 160 pages. So, despite the expert input from Du Toit, who is defending Absa against a civil claim lodged by Aldworth, each page of the charge sheet has been met with about four pages of queries.
Absa chairman Dave Brink appeared to be unfazed by the apparent impropriety of Du Toit’s role when he told Millennium magazine this month: “The attorney general’s office is often out of its depth with commercial cases, and we have to spoon-feed them.”
Just in case Du Toit’s role was not enough overlapping interest for one trial, his instructing attorney is Tony Canny of Routledges. Canny, who took down Aldworth’s original affidavit, could be a material witness to the prosecution in Aldworth’s criminal case, which has been postponed, yet again, until next Thursday.