'Spy hearings' suspended

2008-02-11 16:03

Cape Town - The Erasmus commission has suspended its hearings following a request on Monday by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, who says he is seeking legal advice on the inquiry.

Rasool's request was prompted by objections from Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille, who claimed the commission was unconstitutional.

"The commission considered the request by the premier, and ... a decision was reached to postpone the formal hearings until a date to be announced," the commission said in a statement.

The commission, headed by Cape High Court Judge Nathan Erasmus, said it was unfortunate that parties' right to reply to information already made public was being delayed.

However, it was important that the process be unimpeachable.

Commission secretary Zithulele Twala said suspension of the hearings would not affect the commission's other activities.

"The rest of the work of the commission goes on," he said.

A legal challenge

Rasool appointed the commission at the end of last year to investigate the city's use of private detectives to probe the activities of controversial councillor Badih Chaaban, who allegedly tried to bribe fellow-councillors ahead of a floor-crossing window.

In a letter to Rasool last week, Zille asked the premier to "suspend the further conduct" of the commission, suggesting the city would mount a legal challenge if he did not.

"At the very least, you should, in any new proclamation, dealing with the mandate of the commission, fix a date by which the commission has to report which is sufficiently far in the future to allow the commission to postpone its hearings in order for us to discuss the kinds of issues raised in this letter," she said.

Rasool told a media briefing on Monday that the day before he received the letter, he had extended the commission's term to April 30 this year.

Zille's letter clearly had a full foundation in law, and was "very well crafted legally", and he needed to respond in a legally thorough way.

Though the commission had been set up on the basis of legal opinion, what the province was now seeking was opinion on whether Zille's arguments had merit.

"It is not that our ducks were not in a row," he said. "I will do what is the correct thing. That is why we get legal opinion."

He said that though the commission's public oral hearings had been suspended, its other work - including evaluating, gathering and pronouncing on evidence - would continue.

Based on what had already been done, there was room for an interim report, an issue he had raised with Erasmus.

'Seeking legal advice'

"He said it is possible," Rasool said.

Zille said in a statement welcoming Rasool's announcement, that the premier had informed her "that he will postpone the commission while seeking further legal advice".

"This is the first step towards abandoning the commission," she said. "It is unfortunate that greater legal caution was not applied in this matter from the outset."

She said an independent investigation carried out at the city's behest by advocate Josie Jordaan had found no evidence of illegal spying by the city.

- SAPA