De Lille weighs in on arms deal court case

The arms deal has returned to the public domain with the court application seeking to set aside the findings of the Seriti Commission.

One of the biggest champions of convening the Seriti inquiry was politician Patricia de Lille. There was even a file referred to as the De Lille dossier.It contained evidence incriminating high-profile people.

De Lille, in an interview with eNCA, said there was more than enough evidence to prosecute those involved.

The now-minister of Public Works and Infrastructure said she agrees with the NGOs bringing the court application.

She detailed problems with the original inquiry including that the inquiry never called former president Jacob Zuma to give evidence for the commission.

Additionally, De Lille spoke about how evidence she provided led to the successful prosecution of Shabir Shaik and Tony Yengeni.

Both Zuma and Shaik were accused of having improperly benefitted from the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal.

Shaik was convicted for his role in the matter in 2005 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Yengeni was found guilty of fraud in 2013 for his involvement in the arms deal.

De Lille said, “the arms deal was a litmus test for government to see how they are going to respond to allegations of corruption instead they opted to protect the corrupt and that has sent a wrong message to the country.”

“That’s why 20 years later, you see the scourge of corruption has become an epidemic in our country it’s because government failed to act at the time of the arms deal.

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Source: eNCA