Breytenbach: Secret recording emerges
2013-01-17 15:24
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Johannesburg - Evidence about a secret recording surfaced on
Thursday at the disciplinary hearing of suspended National Prosecuting
Authority prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach.
The recording was made in a meeting between a lawyer and an
Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) director who the NPA thought might turn State
witness in a prospecting licence investigation.
"We felt that there was very improper conduct and
wanted to ensure statements were not attributed to [Archie] Luhlabo that he had
not made," ICT advocate Ronald Mendelow said during cross-examination at
the hearing in Pretoria.
State witness
Earlier, the hearing was told that Breytenbach had been told
by a lawyer, who did not want to be named in the hearing, that Luhlabo wanted
to "defect".
Breytenbach wanted him to know that her "door was
open" if he wanted to turn State witness.
She could not raise it with Mendelow because he dealt with
all of ICT's legal matters.
An intermediary, according to the hearing, was then involved
in Luhlabo contacting lawyer Nazeer Cassim.
Mendelow said Luhlabo told him about this and suspicions
were raised about why Luhlabo should go to the meeting with Cassim.
This was a week after ICT had laid a criminal complaint over
the licences.
Mendelow said Luhlabo told him about text messages for him
to meet Cassim and when he returned from a trip abroad he went to a meeting
with Cassim, and it was secretly recorded.
"It's a Sony... it's not a dictaphone... the kind of
thing you would use at meetings," said Mendelow. Advocate Wim Trengove SC,
for Breytenbach, wanted to know why he would secretly record a meeting with a
senior advocate.
Misconduct
"Because we felt that advocate Cassim was playing a
highly improper role in this matter," said Mendelow..
"We wanted to be absolutely damn sure that nothing
would be attributed to him (Luhlabo) later that was not said."
Trengove wanted to know why he had not just picked up the
phone and discussed with Cassim why he wanted to see Luhlabo.
Trengove and Mendelow also spoke about whether a potential
State witness who was a director would want his company to know what he was
doing.
At the meeting with Cassim, the hearing was told that a
message was said to have been conveyed from Kumba lawyer Michael Hellens to Luhlabo
that he could face arrest if investigators had a strong case against him, and
there was an offer of a deal if he wanted to turn State witness.
Mendelow, for ICT, considered this as intimidation.
Mendelow said Cassim knew that he was not acting for Luhlabo
and that he was guilty of professional misconduct by contacting his client, a
shareholder and director of ICT.
Mendelow said dealing with "high litigation" such
as this case, it made no sense that Cassim did not phone him about it, but
Trengove also wanted to know why Mendelow had not phoned Cassim when he knew
about the meeting.
Breytenbach has been accused by ICT of working too closely
with Hellens on drawing up affidavits and warrants in the investigation.
She was suspended last year, hence the disciplinary hearing.
ICT laid two complaints with the NPA over the handling of
the prospecting licence for a 21.7% stake in Arcellor Mittal's Sishen mine,
after their licence lapsed.
The first was that Kumba's application for the licence was
allegedly incorrectly date-stamped.
The second was that ICT's application was allegedly
"contaminated", possibly in the offices of the Department of Mineral
Resources, with forged title deeds being placed in their file, implying fraud
in the department.
The actual review of the licence is due to go back to court,
to the Supreme Court of Appeal in February.
The hearing continues.
- SAPA
