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By Sihle Mavuso 
12h ago
Durban – Former Prasa CEO Lucky Montana has accused the Zondo commission, which is investigating the state capture allegations, of opting for falsehood to derail his long-awaited testimony.
His accusations came as he was expected to begin his five days of “explosive” testimony on Monday. But, at the eleventh hour, the commission’s secretariat, led by Professor Itumeleng Mosala, told him that it was canned.
In a statement, Montana alleged that the secretary told him that his attachments were not marked, numbered or incomplete, but he vehemently denied this. According to him, that reason was a mere smokescreen and he has since filed a challenge against the decision.
He said angrily that the commission did not allow him to correct what it considered wrong, but instead decided, arbitrarily, to cancel the hearing of his evidence. Montana said the commission raised a technical point on the more important issue of unearthing evidence that could help it “find the truth.”
“The commission’s letter is based on falsehoods from the Commission’s legal team and does not compromise my possible appearance in the short term or before the Commission completes its work.
“The decision is aimed at preventing these exhibits from being admitted as evidence by the commission because they are convicting for the commission itself, its preferred witnesses, and ultimately the entire narrative that we stole or mismanaged public funds as part of the call State Capture “.
In addition, he claimed to have submitted 31 packages of documents that were clearly numbered, each described in detail in the index and linked to the attachment number on his affidavit. Montana said the commission claimed this was not in line with its own “practice”, which it has not shared with him.
“The commission collected documents from my home on December 8, 2020. A week later, I received a call informing me that my attachments would be returned and these were delivered when I was not at home. When I returned and verified the documents, I found that they had been tampered with, copies were made and returned to him with some of the missing attachments.
“The commission analyzed the attachments for a full week, took note of the damning content and had to find a reason for not admitting my evidence. The marking and numbering of the documents was the only reason the commission could find. It’s frivolous and lousy. “
The commission’s spokesman, the Rev. Mbuyiselo Stemela, confirmed that they have written to Montana but did not reveal what they told him.
“The commission confirms that the secretary of the commission has written to Mr. Montana, and the answers to the questions are written in the letter that was sent to him. The commission does not discuss the communication between the commission and its witnesses and you can contact Mr. Montana directly to deliver the letter to them since he is the one who shared the information with the media. The commission always issues notices to the media to inform the media and the public about its procedures, “Stemela said.
Political Bureau
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