Arms deal whistleblowers still want justice, welcome probe into judges
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JOHANNESBURG - WHISTLEBLOWERS and campaigners against the multibillion-rand arms deal have not given up on justice for taxpayers after the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) confirmed it was investigating complaints against two judges who probed the transaction.
Whistleblower Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille wants the R137 million spent on the commission headed by retired Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Willie Seriti to be recovered from evidence leaders, the lawyers and investigators it employed.
De Lille, unlike other whistleblowers, former IFP MP Dr. Gavin Woods and Terry Crawford-Browne, does not want the commission to be reinstituted.
The Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) will meet next month, following a complaint against the two judges who were appointed to preside the Arms Deal Commission, Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi.
On 7 May, Sello Chiloane, secretary of the Judicial Conduct Committee, informed the NGOs, Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets, that their complaint against Seriti and Musi had been referred by JCC Acting Chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, for investigation.
Seriti, a Supreme Court of Appeal judge, and Musi, former Judge President of the Free State High Court, chaired the Arms Procurement Commission, known as the Seriti Commission, for four years at a cost of R130-million.
During that period two shipping containers left at the Hawks premises in Pretoria, containing an eye-watering 4.7 million computer pages and 460 boxes of evidence, remained untouched.
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