Cape Town - Three of the country’s advocates’ societies are being asked to investigate “excessive fees” charged by their members acting as evidence leaders for the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the arms deal, DA MP David Maynier said on Wednesday.
This followed a recent parliamentary reply by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha, showing a total of R41.9 million, or almost half the commission’s R89.19m expenditure to date, had been spent on evidence leaders over the past two years.
“The General Council of the Bar of South Africa’s code of conduct states that the profession is not ‘a mere money-getting trade’. Unfortunately the excessive fees charged by the Arms Procurement Commission’s evidence leaders creates exactly the opposite impression,” Maynier said.
As the advocates acting as evidence leaders were working for a public body and were paid from public funds, Maynier said, fees ranging from R9.64m and R6.39m for individual evidence leaders “appeared to be excessive and therefore unreasonable”.
The request to investigate such fees to the Pretoria, Joburg and KwaZulu-Natal societies of advocates is the first step in the process, which may ultimately end up with the General Council of the Bar of South Africa.
Political Bureau