A wrongly worded summons issued by the state capture commission’s legal team to former Eskom CFO Anoj Singh has forced the chairperson, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, to postpone his oral evidence to a later stage.
Zondo reluctantly allowed Singh’s lawyers to file an affidavit which will address all the issues by which the former Telkom executive was implicated. This came after Zondo requested to see the original summons that were served to Singh requesting him to appear before the commission and spotted something wrong in them.
Singh's lawyers said they had not been given enough time to know what exactly their client had to come to the commission to answer on.
Zondo read the summons sent on December 17 and lashed out at the commission's legal team.
“I’ve looked at this summons... he is directed to appear before the commission, gives the address, the date…Then it says for the purpose of giving evidence before the commission and being questioned on the affidavit that you have submitted to the commission and issues arising thereto. What affidavit are you talking about there?” Zondo asked.
Evidence leader Adv Pule Seleka SC admitted that Singh had not submitted the affidavit being referred to in the summons but was expected to submit it a day later.
Zondo said in reality, the commission’s legal team wanted Singh to come and answer on a “non-existent” affidavit.
“You can’t issue a summons that says somebody has filed an affidavit if actually that has not happened. The summons must tell the person what he is required to testify about on the day that he is required to appear… How do I insist that he comes and testifies today when the summons said he must come and testify on a non-existent affidavit?
“You as the leader should not have authorised your team to give the secretariat a summons to sign which said Mr Singh was supposed to appear and give evidence on an affidavit that you had not seen…This is, as far as I’m concerned, a fatal defect of the summons,” Zondo said.
Singh was expected to testify on among other things the R1.6bn prepayment paid by Eskom to Tegeta. Former head of legal and compliance at Eskom testified last month that former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko gave the instruction for the prepayment. The commission has evidence that Singh allegedly gave approval for that money to be used as a guarantee for Tegeta to purchase Gupta-linked Optimum Coal Mine.
Singh’s lawyer Annelene van den Heever said her client is willing to support the work of the commission but needed to put together a comprehensive affidavit which will address all the issues.
“We want to assist the commission. Our client really believes that the best way to assist the commission is to give it a comprehensive version,” she said.
Zondo directed Singh’s lawyers to provide the comprehensive affidavit before the close of business on January 18.
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