Staff reporter
Bloemfontein – In a bizarre and rare twist of the Macufe case, Sally Maila, the state attorney representing Member of Executive Council (MEC), Limakatso Mahasa, has put the blame squarely on the Hawks and Auditor General of South Africa.
Saila is asking the court to reinstate the lapsed appeal and condonation of late filing of papers.
In an affidavit in possession of this publication, Maila starts by giving DS Consortium 10 days to file a motion to oppose and 15 days to file an opposing affidavit.
Dealing with the matter at hand Saila explains why her client, MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation is seeking reinstatement of the lapsed appeal and condononation of late filing.
“Immediately up on filing the appeal, I attempted to obtain the record from the applicant, however, following a diligent search, it was apparent that the record was in possession of the Hawks as the tender is at the centre of this impasse between parties was and remains a subject of criminal investigation.
The applicant furnished the record to the Hawks without making copies of same and even if they had made such a copy, the applicants legal team was compelled to satisfy itself that the copy was a true of the original.
I then engaged the applicant on the details of the Hawks officials ceased with the case and I was then furnished with such details on the 22 September 2023.”
Saila then turns to AGSA.
“The applicant then advised me that they will assist in trying to get the records from the Auditor General of South Africa as they were also in possession of copies of the records as they were also conducting separate investigation.
I waited for the applicant to follow up with AGSA.”
It was the same department that awarded the tender to C-2 that was declared unlawful, then the department appealed, lost and took the matter to Supreme Court of Appeal for reconsideration and the SCA referred the matter back to high court.
The department failed to file on time, the deadline was 6 October 2023, according to Saila but DS Consortium is of the view the deadline was 30 September 2023.
It remains to be seen if the court will reinstate the lapsed appeal.
In the coming days we will ask the Hawks and AGSA why, they delayed the state.
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