Pretoria | Monday
SOUTH Africa’s defence department was granted two weeks’ postponement on Monday of public hearings into alleged corruption in the government’s R50-billion arms procurement deal.
Legal counsel for the department asked the presiding panel, chaired by Public Protector Selby Baqwa, to postpone the hearing due to its complicated nature.
Baqwa granted the postponement after the department’s legal team said they needed more time to prepare for the hearing.
The first subpoenas for witnesses to testify at the hearings were only issued on May 19.
The panel is looking into allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of arms contracts, under which South Africa will buy aircraft, ships and weapons from Swedish, German, British, French and Italian manufacturers.
Granting a postponement, Baqwa said the panel would on June 11 also make a ruling on whether it would allow two television stations — free-to-air e-tv and public broadcaster SABC — to broadcast the proceedings.
Gilbert Marcus, senior counsel for e-tv, asked that the station be allowed to broadcast the hearings either live or on time delay.
This would be in the interest of accountability and openness, he said.
“The sheer magnitude of the amounts involved is of enormous concern in a country where there are other claims on the public purse,” Marcus said.
The hearings began on Monday and were set to last two months. – AFP