ANALYSIS | As Zondo ends, which evidence leaders were heroes ... or zeroes?

As the Zondo commission draws to a close after the appearance of President Cyril Ramaphosa, its oral hearings will be remembered for the evidence leaders who grilled witnesses for the past three years.

The teams of advocates led by one of the country’s most experienced SCs, Paul Pretorius, had the tough task of separating fact from fiction.

Some witnesses successfully dribbled some evidence leaders, while many were not so lucky.

The commission investigators mined the information, but the evidence leaders had the difficult role of contextualising it against the broader backdrop of state capture, within the terms of reference of the commission.

For the evidence leaders, theirs was the daunting task of extracting the truth from hostile and evasive implicated parties. 

The focus was bound to be the strategic state-owned entities, on which the Gupta family appears to have set its sights to ransack resources and funnel monies towards its companies and those of its allies.

Each of the evidence leaders had their own approach and style, and some excelled, earning themselves respect and command within the legal fraternity.  

Adv Kate Hofmeyr

Many will agree that Kate Hofmeyr, who handled the SAA work stream, perfected the art of cornering unsuspecting witnesses into admission of being enablers to state capture.

A slow starter in her questioning technique, Hofmeyr lured many witnesses into assuming she was out of her depth.

Little did they realise she was giving them rope to hang themselves and once the penny dropped, it was too late to backtrack.

Who can forget controversial businessman Vuyo Ndzeku of JM Aviation, who allegedly benefited handsomely from the rot at SAA?

Ndzeku suffered from serious amnesia, even claiming not to remember his wedding date when Hofmeyr turned up the heat.

He was not the only casualty of Hofmeyr’s merciless questioning process. The same was the case with former SAA technical chairperson Yakhe Kwinana, who will be remembered for bringing shame to the profession of chartered accountants.

Kwinana was also cornered to the point of admitting to signing a multimillion-rand contract without reading the document.

It was Hofmeyr’s performance against Ndzeku and Kwinana that caused former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni to resort to invoking her privilege to not answer questions “in case I incriminate myself” when it was her turn.

Adv Paul Pretorius SC

The leader of the legal team handled the big guns, including accused number one, former president Jacob Zuma.

With his experience as an advocate spanning close to five decades, Pretorius was less interested in showmanship and trickery, employing a more direct approach.

His grilling of Zuma in 2019, led to the former president abandoning the inquiry after appearing for only two days, never to return, leading to his incarceration for defying a court order.

Pretorius was also central in the crumbling of the house of cards in the evidence of businessman Edwin Sodi for his alleged involvement in kickbacks for the Free State asbestos contract.

One such instance was when Sodi could not explain the R600,000 payment to a car dealership for a vehicle belonging to former human settlements director-general Thabane Zulu.

Pretorius also unleashed one of the commission’s most famous witnesses, Angelo Agrizzi, who sang like a canary in implicating high-ranking ANC politicians on shady dealings with Bosasa.

Adv Pule Seleka SC

If “patience” were a person, it would certainly be adv Pule Seleka in the case of the Zondo inquiry legal team.

Handling one of the most complex work streams of the commission, Eskom, Seleka had to confront the same witnesses more than four times each, including the power utility’s two former bosses — Matshela Koko and Brian Molefe.

Seleka’s effective questioning was difficult to notice for the impatient, but to use boxing jargon he fought to win on points rather than knocking out his opponents.

But last week, he went for the knockout in his grilling of Ramaphosa for his alleged involvement in Eskom affairs during his time as deputy president of the country.

Until Ramaphosa came face to face with Seleka, he had had a relatively smooth ride.

Adv Anton Myburgh SC

The confrontational Myburgh took no prisoners and bruised a lot of egos.

Myburgh led evidence in the Transnet stream.

Brian Molefe, as former Transnet boss, who had proved a tough nut to crack for others such as Seleka for his alleged Eskom sins, started off well in his face-off with Myburgh.

But it was Myburgh who had the last laugh as Molefe, not a man of admissions, admitted to some responsibility for the mess at Transnet.

Molefe scored an own-goal, thanks to Myburgh’s pressure, when he admitted that he “will carry the can” for the escalation of the price form R39bn to R54bn on the procurement of the 1,064 locomotives.

Myburgh would also expose former public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba’s fragile ego during their tussle.

In his “deny everything” testimony, Gigaba got hot under the collar from most of Myburgh’s confrontational questions.

Adv Vas Soni SC 

The less said about Soni, the better.

A lot of doubt and unanswered questions still hang in the air about the Prasa stream of evidence where he was the leader.

If Soni was not being a hype man for former Prasa board chair Popo Molefe, he was being annihilated by former CEO Lucky Montana during their showdown.

In Soni’s eyes, Molefe was the saviour of Prasa, who had no help even from the highest level and tried to trick Ramaphosa to admission last week.

The president was having none of it, as he fired back that Molefe cannot blame other people when he failed to use his legislated powers to deal with graft he believed was endemic at Prasa.

Adv Matthew Chaskalson SC

Large numbers were mentioned by several witnesses and uncovered by the commission’s evidence leaders, but Chaskalson had to connect the dots in the money-flow.

And his was a straightforward job because numbers do not lie.  

Other than the revelation through his questioning that there was R57bn that flowed to Gupta-linked companies during the state capture years, Chaskalson showed that the state capture network extended beyond the Guptas.

One such revelation was his impressive work on tech giant EOH, which appeared to have bought political influence in exchange for an advantage on state contracts.

In this regard, Chaskalson nailed now late late Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo, whose company was in bed with EOH, while he occupied several influential positions in the city.

ANC NEC member and deputy minister of intelligence Zizi Kodwa also had nowhere to hide when cornered about financial benefits he received from EOH executive Jehan Mackay.