Pompie Ledwaba, the Mpumalanga businessman who has accused Deputy President David Mabuza of killing whistle-blowers and political opponents, is facing allegations of perjury and defeating the ends of justice.
Mabuza launched interdict proceedings against Ledwaba in the Mpumalanga High Court to stop Ledwaba from making the defamatory allegations, or prove it to be true.
Mabuza has constantly denied that he directs criminals to fight his political or personal battles and that citizens with evidence linking him to any crime should approach the authorities.
The interdict is to be argued on May 5.
“I have an audio video of applicant (Mabuza) in 2010 at an ANC conference at Nutting House stating in his own words that he knows the identity of the killers of the whistle blowers and that he would disclose it at an appropriate time,” Ledwaba told the Mpumalanga High Court in a statement under oath.
He told the court that he was unable to transcribe the video for purposes of annexing it to his affidavit.
For more than a decade Mabuza has denied participation in political killings and if he had previously said that he knew the entity of the killers of whistle-blowers, the question may rightly be asked why he did not reveal it to the police and the public to clear his name.
Ulrich Roux, the Joburg lawyer representing Mabuza wrote to Ledwaba’s attorneys and asked for a copy of the video.
“There rules of court obliges a party to disclose an item he refers to in court papers to the other party,” Ian Levitt of Ian Levitt Attorneys informed The Star.
But the video was not forthcoming, neither was an audio version of it or a transcribed version.
An investigative journalist of The Star accessed the court papers and noticed that the video wasn’t handed over to the court either.
We wrote to Ledwaba and his lawyers asking for a copy of it.
The Star received anonymous calls asking for a secret meeting to discuss the matter but we maintained that the video had to be provided for The Star to publish it.
The calls stopped.
“Ledwaba doesn’t have such a video and he must explain why he lied in his court papers’ a person with intimate knowledge of the case told The Star.
“We have asked the Respondent (Ledwaba) for a copy of this video but he has not handed it to us.
“I don’t believe further comments are appropriate as the matter is set down for argument,” Roux said in his response to media queries.
General Mulangi Mphego, special advisor to Mabuza, indicated that court process and the sub judice rule had to be respected and refrained from commenting.
“The pleadings have closed and the deputy president cannot respond to your questions.
“Please refer to his responding affidavit where he deals with this allegation,” Mphego wrote.
“The court may draw a negative credibility inference of a party if the party refers to evidence he has available but does not disclose it to the other party or the court.
“Worst is if I party lies to the court that he has evidence but actually doesn’t.
“That is a criminal offence,” Levitt said.
The Star has been informed by a person close to Mabuza that his legal team advised him not to oversee Ledwaba’s lies but to approach the authorities to deal with Ledwaba.
In a memo by Mphego to the lawyers it is stated that ‘the deputy president does not want to approach the police before the matter is finalised in court because it may seem to the public and the court that he is using the authorities to deal with a matter that is still to be decided on by the judiciary.
Once the matter is over the deputy president will proceed as advised.
In the meantime Ledwaba will have to explain his failure to hand over the video to form part of the evidence the court must consider, during the hearing on May 5.