The Commission of Inquiry into allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity in the Strategic Defence Procurement Packages (SDPP) otherwise known as the Seriti Commission was tasked with investigating whether there were any irregularities or corruption in the award of the Arms Deal contracts. Moreover, the commission was tasked with assessing whether the Deal was rational and whether the economic benefits that were due to flow from the deal materialised.
Chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, the Commission was criticised for impartiality, failing to hold those accused of corruption accountable by ignoring key evidence and not subpoenaing those accused like Jacob Zuma and not giving witnesses, access to documents. In response three ‘critic witnesses, Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden (Shadow World Investigations) and Open Secrets’ director, Hennie Van Vuuren, announced that they were withdrawing all participation from the Commission in protest at the way it was conducting itself.
The Seriti Commission’s final report was full of inaccuracies, contradictions and logical inconsistencies. Consequently, civil society groups R2K & Corruption Watch also view the Commission’s final findings as a whitewash. In October 2016, Corruption Watch (CW) and R2K filed an application at the North Gauteng High Court. CW and R2K asked that the High Court set aside the findings of the Commission.
The final report of the People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime was released on the 20th of September 2018, the report states there is sufficient evidence that cabinet ministers were involved in suspicious operations throughout the Arms Deal.