A Cape High Court judge on Monday dismissed an application to force Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to hand over arms-deal documents, activist Terry Crawford-Browne said.
He said Judge Daniel Dlodlo ruled in essence ”that I had waited too long in asserting my rights to discovery of the documents”.
”Whilst disappointing, the matter has already been overtaken by events — namely the Constitutional Court’s confirmation on Thursday that Shaik bribed Zuma, and by the Judge Hlophe uproar,” he said.
Crawford-Browne had asked the court for an order compelling Manuel and former treasury director general Maria Ramos to supply hundreds of pages of documents related to the multibillion-rand deal.
He said the two — against whom he was also seeking a contempt of court ruling — were ordered to supply the documents in a 2003 court challenge to the deal, but gave him only 224 of about 700 pages.
He maintained the documents, containing recommendations of the government’s negotiating team on the deal, would ”lay a trail” for investigators to track bribes by successful bidder BAE.
Manuel’s legal representative said in court that Crawford-Browne had already been given all the documents he asked for.
The minister earlier this year won a temporary order preventing Crawford-Browne from accusing him of arms-deal corruption, and has applied to make it permanent. — Sapa