DA welcomes High Court judgement setting aside ‘whitewashed’ arms deal report
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the North Gauteng High Court Ruling today, setting aside the findings of the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the Arms Deal of 1999. The DA has always been of the view that the Commission’s findings were illegitimate and inconsistent as it seemingly allowed all those implicated in the deal off the hook – including Jacob Zuma and Shabir Shaik.
The Seriti Commission of Inquiry was appointed by then President Zuma in 2011 to investigate claims of corruption, wrongdoing and fraud in the R30 billion Arms Deal with the object of revealing the truth to the public. The Court, in a scathing judgment lambasted the Commission for manifestly failing in this regard, by several indicators:
Critical reports were not investigated, but rather dismissed;
Facts were accepted as common cause, when a reasonable commission would have tested all supplied evidence;