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Court favours arms critic
16/11/2005 10:50 - (SA)
Cape Town - Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's bid to sequestrate arms deal critic Terry Crawford-Browne was rejected by a Cape High Court judge on Wednesday.
Manuel was seeking to recover almost R1m in legal fees incurred by the state in fighting a series of court challenges by Crawford-Browne to the multi-billion rand deal.
Crawford-Browne, a former banker, maintains he has spent all his money on his arms deal campaign, has no assets apart from a rusty Fiat Uno, and that there is no point in sequestrating him.
Ruling on Manuel's application for an order for provisional sequestration, Judge Roger Cleaver said the minister's counsel had argued that a sequestration enquiry would be able to probe any transactions between Crawford-Browne and his wife, who owns a Milnerton apartment worth at least R475 000.
However, for these to fall under the net of the Insolvency Act, Crawford-Browne would have had to be insolvent at the time, and there was no suggestion in the papers before the court that this had been the case.
"Properly analysed, the reasons advanced on behalf of the applicant to the effect that it will be to the advantage of creditors to grant the order seem to me to amount to nothing more than speculation," he said.
"In the circumstances, I am not persuaded that the applicant has made out a case, even on a prima facie basis, that there is reason to believe that a provisional order will be to the financial advantage of creditors."
Crawford-Browne, who appeared before the judge without legal representation, welcomed the ruling.
"I'm very pleased," he said. "I think he [Manuel] was simply abusing his powers, as he's done throughout. He's trying to silence me."
He said Cleaver's decision "put the ball back into play" on the arms deal.
He now intended to lodge a High Court application for a declaration that the minister committed perjury and fraud when he said there was no link between a series of loan agreements he signed, and the arms purchase agreements.
This was like saying buying a house had nothing to do with the mortgage. It was a "textbook example of Third World debt entrapment", he said.
- SAPA
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