The findings of the Seriti Commission of inquiry into the controversial arms deal were set aside by the North Gauteng High court on Wednesday.
This comes after two civil society groups, Corruption Watch and the Right2Know Campaign, brought an application to have the 2016 findings by Judge Willie Seriti overturned citing that he misled the public by exonerating politicians and public servants in wrongdoing during the arms deal saga.
Judge President Dustan Mlambo said the manner in which the commission approached the witnesses was represented as a "complete failure."
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had appeared as a respondent, didn't oppose the application by the two organisations, but through his lawyer he made the concession that the commission failed to investigate claims by the German police and Swiss authorities that arms acquisitions head Chippy Shaik was offered $3 million to allocate certain foreign companies a stake in the R60 billion arms deal.
The commission also failed to investigate claims that Shaik, ANC heavyweight Tony Yengeni, Tony Georgiades and Vice-Admiral Simpson Anderson accrued major benefits from the arms deal.
The commission was established in 2011 by former president Jacob Zuma to investigate allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity in the Strategic Defence Procurement Package.
Mlambo said the commission appeared to treat statements from those accused of corruption as facts whereas it treated statements from critics of the arms deal as mere allegations.
"We are fortified in our view that the inquiry the commission was called upon to conduct never materialized."
- African News Agency (ANA),
