In 2019, Corruption Watch and R2K received notice, that all opposition to the application by the Presidency and government departments was being withdrawn. This means that CW and R2K’s application would not be challenged and that it would, as a matter of course, be granted a default judgment.
Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations have since laid a complaint with the Chief Justice as the Chair of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC). The complaint asks the Chief Justice to refer Judge Willie Seriti and Judge Hendrick Musi to the JSC because of their failure to investigate the Arms Deal during the life of the Seriti Commission. The complaint also asks the Chief Justice to consider whether certain actions by Judges Seriti and Musi may constitute criminal misconduct and, if so, to refer these matters to the NPA for further action.
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.
11 May 2021 | In a letter to the Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets, dated 07 May 2021, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo (as acting chair of the Judicial Conduct Committee) has affirmed the seriousness of the organisations complaint to the Judicial Service Commission. His letters confirms that the matter has now been referred…
11 May 2021 | Media Statement | Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets | On 11 August 2020, non-profit organisations Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets submitted a complaint to the Chairperson of the Judicial Conduct Committee (of the Judicial Service Commission). The detailed complaint focused on the High Court’s damning judgment which finds that…
On Wednesday, the High Court in Pretoria found the Seriti commission failed to comprehensively investigate the arms deal as it had been mandated to do. The commission, chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, ran for four years and cost taxpayers more than R130m. Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, standing in for Eusebius McKaiser, spoke to author and Corruption Watch…
22 August 2019 Setting aside the findings of the commission into the arms deal offers an opportunity to cast the net wider says Andrew Feinstein, arms trade activist and author of The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. He talks to Upfront’s Refilwe Moloto about details of the two-decades-long investigation into South Africa’s arms…
Andrew Feinstein, Hennie van Vuuren, Paul Holden | 21 August 2019 We welcome the judgment delivered on Wednesday in the High Court that sets aside the findings of the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the Arms Deal. This is a profound victory for South African civil society and is the result of years of collective…
SABC Digital News | 21 August 2019 A full bench of the Pretoria High Court led by Judge President Dunstan Mlambo has set aside the 2016 findings of the Arms Deal Commission with costs. In handing down judgement, the court found that the commission failed in its legal mandate to test the veracity of crucial…
Right2Know (R2K) and Corruption Watch (CW) will be in court on 11th and 12th June to finally review and set aside the findings of the Arms Procurement Commission (‘the Seriti Commission’), after several years of dogged scrutiny of the flawed processes and ongoing efforts to hold the commission accountable. The fact that this matter will finally…
17 October 2016 Today Corruption Watch (CW) and the Right2Know (R2K) Campaign have launched an application in the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria. The application asks the court to review and set aside the findings of the Arms Procurement Commission, also known as the Seriti Commission. This follows a relentless struggle by civil…
Press Statement by Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie Van Vuuren, regarding the release of the Seriti Commission Report into the Arms Deal | 21 April 2016 On the 21st of April 2016, President Jacob Zuma announced the release of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity…
R2K is angered by the content of the report of the Seriti Commission, presented today by President Zuma, which claims that it found no evidence of corruption and bribery in the 1999 Arms Deal. The extent of the cover-up vindicates our consistent reservations about the fairness of the process. It has long been clear that…
Joint call for real Arms Deal accountability 29 September 2014 Dissolve the Arms Procurement Commission! Launch a full and transparent criminal investigation! Prosecute all implicated in wrongdoing! The 1999 Arms Deal represents up to R70 billion that should have been spent on housing, education, health and South Africa’s other pressing social needs. The Arms Deal…
Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie Van Vuuren | 28 August 2014 Withdrawal from the Arms Procurement Commission The Arms Deal was a uniquely damaging moment in our young democratic history. It was concluded after decades of uncontrolled spending on foreign and internal wars by the apartheid regime. From the signing of the contracts in…
Open Secrets Director, Hennie van Vuuren, weighs in on the Zuma vs. Downer and Maughan case.
ENCA | 20 July 2021 Open Secrets director Hennie Van Vuuren spoke with eTV’s Annika Larsen.
Sunday Times | Franny Rabkiin | 4 July 2021 Retired judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi have challenged the constitutionality of the Judicial Service Commission Act, saying it is unconstitutional in that it allows judicial misconduct complaints against retired judges. “We are aggrieved that we have to be put through a complaint process when we…
News 24 | Jeanette Chabalala | 2 July 2021 Two retired judges, who presided over the Arms Deal Inquiry, have approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to challenge the constitutionality of the Judicial Service Commission Act. Judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi face an investigation for “incapacity, gross incompetence or gross misconduct”. Seriti was…
Newzroom Afrika | 26 May 2021 Newzroom Afrika’s Thabo Mdluli is joined by legal journalist at News24 Karyn Maughan, and Arms Deal whistleblower and Open Secrets Director, Hennie van Vuuren to help unpack the Zuma and Thales case.
IOL | Loyiso Sidimba | 15 May 2021 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…
Marianne Tham | Daily Maverick | 12 May 2021 In the aftermath of a North Gauteng High Court finding, judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi will now have to explain why the Arms Procurement Commission overlooked crucial information prior to making findings in 2016 that the arms deal was clean as a whistle. On 7…
Newsroom Afrika | 12 May 2021 In 2011, Judge Willie Seriti, a Supreme Court of Appeal judge, and Judge Hendrick Musi, former Judge President of the Free State High Court, were appointed to chair the Arms Procurement Commission, known as the Seriti Commission. The commission probed allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity in the…
11 May 2021 | Karyn Maughan | News 24 The judges who preside over R150 Million Arms Deal Inquiry, which found no evidence of corruption in the multibillion-rand deal, are now facing and investigation for “incapacity, gross incompetence or gross misconduct”. Judicial Service Commission (JSC) secretary Sello Chiloane has confirmed that the JSC’s conduct committee…
11 May 2021 | In a letter to the Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets, dated 07 May 2021, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo (as acting chair of the Judicial Conduct Committee) has affirmed the seriousness of the organisations complaint to the Judicial Service Commission. His letters confirms that the matter has now been referred…
11 May 2021 | Media Statement | Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets | On 11 August 2020, non-profit organisations Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets submitted a complaint to the Chairperson of the Judicial Conduct Committee (of the Judicial Service Commission). The detailed complaint focused on the High Court’s damning judgment which finds that…
Newsroom Afrika | 11 May 2021 Paul Holden, Director of Shadow World Investigations speaks about the Seriti commission of inquiry into the arms deal.
SABC News | 4 May 2021 Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations have written to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) demanding a response about a complaint they filed in August 2020 asking the JSC to look into the conduct of Judge Willie Seriti and Judge Hendrick Musi regarding the Arms Deal Inquiry. The two organizations…
23 April 2021 On the 11th of August 2020, Shadow World Investigations (“SWI”) and Open Secrets submitted a complaint to the Chairperson of the Judicial Conduct Committee (of the Judicial Service Commission) in terms of Section 14 of the Judicial Services Act 9 of 1994, regarding the conduct of Judge Willie Seriti and Judge Hendrick…
Newzroom Afrika | 23 February 2021| Pre-trial proceedings for the Arms Deal corruption trial are expected to be heard in the KwaZulu-Natal high court in Pietermaritzburg today. A trial date is likely to be set for one of South Africa’s longest-running legal cases. Former president Jacob Zuma and co accused, French arms manufacturer Thales face…
Open Secrets & Shadow World Investigations | Daily Maverick | 20 August 2020 | Our complaint has been submitted in line with the Judicial Services Act which allows for complaints to be filed where judges are guilty of either ‘gross misconduct’ or ‘gross incompetence’, among other things. We have submitted a complaint to the Chief…
Paul Holden | Daily Maverick | 18 August 2020 | The crisis of State Capture and the epidemic of corruption that undermines Covid-19 relief and mitigation efforts, find their roots in the wholesale destruction of the capacity of the state to tackle corruption lest those capacities uncover the full rot of the Arms Deal. South…
Unaccountable 00015: Arms Deal – The BAE Corruption Bombshell By Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations The Arms Deal was never only about Jacob Zuma and his sweetheart relationship with French arms company Thales. We now have even more proof that it was rotten to the core and demands accountability. It is not often that…
Unaccountable 00014 | BAE Systems – (Profit) Before Anything Else By Meghan Samaai This is an instalment in Open Secrets’ series detailing BAE Systems’ network of middlemen and agents who were paid generously in return for their political connections and influence during South Africa’s 1999 Arms Deal. This week, we turn our focus from the…
Unaccountable 00013 | Fana Hlongwane – Agent of BAE Systems By Meghan Samaai This is the second in a three-part Open Secrets series detailing the lucrative relationship between BAE Systems and its covert international network of middlemen. As we saw in Unaccountable 00012, BAE, like many European arms corporations looking to profit from South Africa’s…
Unaccountable 00012 | John Bredenkamp – Agent of BAE Systems By Meghan Samaai 18 June 2020 This week, Open Secrets continues to profile the corporations and individuals implicated in corruption in the 1999 Arms Deal but yet to be held to account. The European arms corporations that profited from the deal used a similar modus…
Unaccountable 00011: Thales – How to buy a country By Meghan Samaai This week Open Secrets publishes the second in a series of profiles on the corporations and middlemen implicated in the multibillion-dollar Arms Deal of the late 1990s. This week we focus on the company at the heart of Zuma’s Arms Deal corruption scandal…
Unaccountable 00010: Jacob Zuma – Comrade in Arms By Meghan Samaai and Hennie van Vuuren 6 May 2020 This week Open Secrets publishes the first of a number of profiles on the corporations and middlemen implicated in the multibillion-dollar Arms Deal of the late 1990s. None of these companies has been held to account. The…
11 October 2019 | SABC News | Former President Jacob Zuma and French Arms Company, Thales, have lost their bid to avoid prosecution on corruption charges. They’ll have to appear in court on Tuesday for the start of their trial, which has been delayed for 15 years. Zuma’s legal team argued that the National Prosecuting…
On Wednesday, the High Court in Pretoria found the Seriti commission failed to comprehensively investigate the arms deal as it had been mandated to do. The commission, chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, ran for four years and cost taxpayers more than R130m. Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, standing in for Eusebius McKaiser, spoke to author and Corruption Watch…
22 August 2019 Setting aside the findings of the commission into the arms deal offers an opportunity to cast the net wider says Andrew Feinstein, arms trade activist and author of The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. He talks to Upfront’s Refilwe Moloto about details of the two-decades-long investigation into South Africa’s arms…
Andrew Feinstein, Hennie van Vuuren, Paul Holden | 21 August 2019 We welcome the judgment delivered on Wednesday in the High Court that sets aside the findings of the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the Arms Deal. This is a profound victory for South African civil society and is the result of years of collective…
SABC Digital News | 21 August 2019 A full bench of the Pretoria High Court led by Judge President Dunstan Mlambo has set aside the 2016 findings of the Arms Deal Commission with costs. In handing down judgement, the court found that the commission failed in its legal mandate to test the veracity of crucial…
Open Secrets’ Researcher Michael Marchant chats with Africa Melane on the Seriti Commission and the Review. The commission investigated allegations of fraud and corruption in the Strategic Defence Procurement Packages and exonerated everyone implicated. State legal advisor Advocate Nazeer Cassim said on Tuesday the Presidency supported the court application made by Corruption Watch (CW) and…
Right2Know (R2K) and Corruption Watch (CW) will be in court on 11th and 12th June to finally review and set aside the findings of the Arms Procurement Commission (‘the Seriti Commission’), after several years of dogged scrutiny of the flawed processes and ongoing efforts to hold the commission accountable. The fact that this matter will finally…
On the 11th and 12th of June 2019 Corruption Watch South Africa and Right to Know Campaign (R2K) are at the High Court in Gauteng to present their review application into the Seriti Commission. Michael Marchant and Mamello Mosiana from Open Secrets, in a short informal video, discuss the process that led to this step.…
The corruption case against former South African president Jacob Zuma has begun. Zuma’s case lifts the lid on the influence of weapons companies on governments worldwide. “It’s not a story of a corrupt guy, Jacob Zuma,” says Hennie van Vuuren, the director of Open Secrets, a South African organisation that investigates economic crimes and abuses…
Phemelo Motene unpacks the arms deal with Micheal Marchant, Researcher at Open Secrets.
Civil society groups Corruption Watch and the Right2Know Campaign have announced they will be taking the judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal (the Seriti commission) on judicial review. They insist the public has been denied both truth and justice for corruption that continues to cost SA billions. The review is an attempt to…
17 October 2016 Today Corruption Watch (CW) and the Right2Know (R2K) Campaign have launched an application in the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria. The application asks the court to review and set aside the findings of the Arms Procurement Commission, also known as the Seriti Commission. This follows a relentless struggle by civil…
Press Statement by Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie Van Vuuren, regarding the release of the Seriti Commission Report into the Arms Deal | 21 April 2016 On the 21st of April 2016, President Jacob Zuma announced the release of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity…
R2K is angered by the content of the report of the Seriti Commission, presented today by President Zuma, which claims that it found no evidence of corruption and bribery in the 1999 Arms Deal. The extent of the cover-up vindicates our consistent reservations about the fairness of the process. It has long been clear that…
In treating the whistle-blowers as the subject of the investigation rather than the alleged corrupters, the Seriti Commission misses its mark. The arms companies have successfully avoided scrutiny at the Seriti Commission, essentially putting the whistle-blowers and critics on trial. The absence of the arms companies from the Seriti Commission is telling. The commission’s first…
Joint call for real Arms Deal accountability 29 September 2014 Dissolve the Arms Procurement Commission! Launch a full and transparent criminal investigation! Prosecute all implicated in wrongdoing! The 1999 Arms Deal represents up to R70 billion that should have been spent on housing, education, health and South Africa’s other pressing social needs. The Arms Deal…
Check out the Arms Deal Facts portal set up by the Right2Know Campaign at http://armsdealfacts.com/ You can download key evidence submitted to the Seriti Commission by former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein and researchers Paul Holden and Hennie van Vuuren, represented by Lawyers for Human Rights.
Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie Van Vuuren | 28 August 2014 Withdrawal from the Arms Procurement Commission The Arms Deal was a uniquely damaging moment in our young democratic history. It was concluded after decades of uncontrolled spending on foreign and internal wars by the apartheid regime. From the signing of the contracts in…
Anine Kriegler A recurring line from those trying to dismiss allegations of corruption in the Arms Deal is: “Show us the evidence.” During his testimony at the Seriti Commission two weeks ago, former president Mbeki took an opportunity to lash out at critics, saying: “For all of these years we have been saying, let this…
Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie van Vuuren This past week marked a significant milestone in the seemingly unending saga that is the arms deal. The fact that a former Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Erwin, was required to testify at the Arms Procurement Commission represents an important step in the process of deepening…
