‘Zondo Commission protects liars’– Fraser

FORMER State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser has accused the Zondo Commission of trying to protect six witnesses who allegedly lied to the state capture inquiry about him after his application to crossexamine them was dismissed.

Fraser had applied to the commission to cross-examine the six witnesses, who included former police minister Sydney Mufamadi, who also chaired an inquiry into the operations of the intelligence agency, and former acting directorgeneral Loyiso Jafta.

Fraser had also opened a case of perjury against the six individuals at the Hillbrow police station in February this year because he believed they lied to the commission when they implicated him.

Frazer said he opened a case against Mufamadi, Jafta, secret SSA operatives known only as Ms K and Mr Y, the commission’s evidence leader, advocate Paul Pretorius SC, as well as a member of Pretorius’ team, advocate Veruschka September.

Commission spokesperson Reverend Mbuyiselo Stemela failed to respond to questions.

Yesterday, Fraser’s lawyer, Rapulane Kgoroeadira said they were appealing against the commission’s decision to dismiss his client’s application to crossexamine “those who lied about him before the commission and the nation.”

“We believe that the commission is trying to protect those who lied about my client when they dismissed his application to cross-examine them. Remember, in one instance my client didn’t even get a notice from the commission that he was going to be implicated by one of its witnesses.”

In his affidavit at the Hillbrow police station, Fraser accuse Mufamadi of lying when he testified at the commission that about R9 billion was spent on lost assets by the SSA during Fraser’s tenure.

He also accused Mufamadi of lying, when he told the commission there was evidence that Fraser had appointed his son at a warehouse that was used as a front company for the SSA. Fraser denied that the company that employed his son was a front for the agency.

He said Jafta repeated and also confirmed some of Mufamadi’s “false allegations” when he testified before the commission.

Fraser believes that there was a legal obligation by the commission to correct these falsehoods before his accusers appeared before the commission. For this reason, he also accused the evidence leaders of complicity.

“The commission allowed these people to come and lie about my client, but now they don’t want us to crossexamine them to expose their lies. The commission is expected to reveal and expose the truth, and not to protect liars,” Kgoroeadira said yesterday.

Kgoreadira claims the commission gave him frivolous excuses.

“First they claim that our application was made out of the required time, which isn’t true. Secondly, they said we didn’t submit any statement, which is also not true because we submitted a statement before the commission of more than 200 pages with annexures. And lastly, they are saying some of the people we have applied to cross-examine didn’t implicate my clientl; again, that isn’t true.

“We have notified the six individuals that we have applied to crossexamine, but only one of them opposed our application and the rest didn’t. If the commission is acting on behalf of these individuals, they must produce an affidavit where the commission was officially appointed to act on their behalf.”

In his police affidavit, Fraser dismissed evidence given to the commission by SSA operatives identified as Ms K and Mr Y.

Kgoreadira said Fraser was still waiting to be notified of a date to testify before the commission.

“My client has been ready to tell his truth, but I don’t think the commission is not ready for him. We have been waiting patiently to be called to come and testify so we (can) demystify some of the myths and set the record straight.”