In the media
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21 February 2014
The Citizen
Home Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said a total of 50 815 duplicates were on record, a huge drop from the initial figure of 598 000 given by the department’s director-general, Mkuseli Apleni, in 2011.
Mamoepa, however, last week said that only 50 815 duplicates were detailed in the department’s system. A total of 28 185 of these IDs were verified before December 31, 2013, which was the set date to invalidate all the unaccounted for documents.
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21 February 2014
Mail & Guardian Online
The farce perpetrated at this week's hearing of the Seriti commission of inquiry into the R70-billion arms deal showed once and for all that the commission is simply a further waste of state funds, and should be shut down.
Given that the state first closed down the Scorpions' criminal investigation, and then the Hawks' probe, this newspaper never had much expectation that Seriti would engage energetically with the evidence of corruption that exists.
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20 February 2014
SABC
Attorney at Lawyers for Human Rights, Osmond Mngomezulu, says counsellors who have established themselves and have years of experience charge high amounts of money to represent their clients in court.
Mngomezulu says clients are told which advocate has won cases and based on that, they decide whether they are going to employ that advocate to represent them. He was speaking on SAfm's Forum @8 on a discussion whether "Is justice ONLY for the rich and privileged?
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19 February 2014
City Press
Close to a year since the Arms Procurement Commission started its investigation into the arms deal, the classification of documents is still delaying the process.
These issues arose in August last year when the commission postponed its public hearings after the defence department requested urgent meetings to discuss the declassification of documents.
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19 February 2014
SABC News
Lawyers for Human Rights are demanding access to top secret contracts government signed with arms suppliers as part of the 1999 multi-billion rand deal.
Lawyers representing arms deal critics turned up the heat at the commission, probing the package on Tuesday.
Former Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin wrapped up his testimony, but may be re-called for cross-examination.
On Tuesday, when everyone was expecting it to delve deeper, a legal wrangle over whether contracts with arms suppliers should be made public took palce.
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19 February 2014
Times Live
Former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein yesterday asked how the truth about South Africa's 1999 R30-billion arms deal could be revealed if vital information was hidden from the public.
Feinstein spoke after Lawyers for Human Rights declined to cross-examine former trade and industry minister Alec Erwin at the Arms Procurement Commission hearings because documents central to his testimony had not been made available.
Lawyers for Human Rights represents Feinstein and arms deal researchers Hennie van Vuuren and Paul Holden.
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19 February 2014
Business Day
The declassification and availability of key documents on Tuesday continued to be a stumbling block for the Arms Procurement Commission proceedings.
Lawyers for Human Rights declined to cross-examine former trade and industry minister Alec Erwin, because arms deal contracts had not been made available to its legal team.
The cross-examination of Mr Erwin was set to begin on Monday but was postponed to allow Lawyers for Human Rights to obtain the contracts, which contained secrecy provisions.
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18 February 2014
Business Day
The government, with the benefit of hindsight, would have done things differently in trying to create economic growth through the 1998 arms deal, former trade and industry minister Alec Erwin said on Monday.
Testifying at the arms procurement commission, chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, he said: "The policy was not a total success but it was a success in our view and that success was better than the nothing that would have resulted from doing nothing through fear of the risks."
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17 February 2014
Mail & Guardian Online
The commission has not declassified all the documents before it, and legal teams are still not given adequate time to prepare for cross-examinations.
Monday's brief postponement of proceedings at the arms deal commission exposed two of its most serious flaws. Firstly, that it has not declassified all the documents in evidence. The commission adjourned in August 2013 to deal specifically with this issue, which Judge Willie Seriti said would "always be a nightmare".
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5 February 2014
Sapa
The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) wilfully acted in contempt of a court order when it refused to re-admit students evicted from their residences, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled on Tuesday.
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), for the students, on Saturday obtained an urgent court order to force TUT to allow students back into residences.
They returned to court this week with a contempt application after TUT ignored the court order for two days.
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