{"id":8491,"date":"2013-08-05T10:19:34","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T10:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=8491"},"modified":"2013-08-05T10:19:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T10:19:34","slug":"arms-deal-commission-postponed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=8491","title":{"rendered":"Arms deal commission postponed"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content_blurb\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_8493\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8493\" style=\"width: 299px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/seriti.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8493\" alt=\"Seriti\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/seriti.jpg\" width=\"299\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/seriti.jpg 299w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/seriti-70x40.jpg 70w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 85vw, 299px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8493\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seriti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The arms procurement commission has been adjourned until August 19 pending the resolving of the declassification of some documents.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The arms procurement commission, which began its public hearings in Pretoria on Monday morning, has been adjourned until August 19. Commission chair Judge Willie Seriti agreed to a request from lawyers of the defence department for the issue of the declassification of documents before the commission to be &#8220;dealt with&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Additionally, Seriti hopes President Jacob Zuma will have given the commission direction on the appointment of a third commissioner by then. This follows the resignation of commissioner\u00a0Judge Francis Legodi\u00a0last week. Effectively, this means the commission cannot form a quorum because, when Zuma appointed the commission, he envisioned three commissioners hearing the evidence. Seriti and Judge Hendrick Mmolli Thekiso Musi are the two remaining commissioners.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Commission spokesperson William Baloyi said on Sunday that the commission has engaged the presidency on the legality of starting the proceedings with a two-member commission\u00a0and is waiting for guidance on the matter from the presidency. Legodi has yet to be replaced, but Baloyi said this had no logistical impact regarding the work of the commission. &#8220;Logistically, everything is in place. We are ready to proceed,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Seriti said the issue of the declassification of documentation &#8220;has always been a nightmare&#8221;. Resolving that issue would prevent the commission having to ask members of the public to leave the venue &#8220;every 15 minutes&#8221; when classified information needed to be discussed, he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The commission was due to hear witnesses from the defence department this week. It was revealed at the commission on Monday that the department brought a court\u00a0application asking for a postponement late on Sunday night. &#8211; <em>Mail &amp; Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The arms procurement commission has been adjourned until August 19 pending the resolving of the declassification of some documents. The arms procurement commission, which began its public hearings in Pretoria on Monday morning, has been adjourned until August 19. Commission chair Judge Willie Seriti agreed to a request from lawyers of the defence department for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=8491\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Arms deal commission postponed&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[4734,4735,4736,4737],"class_list":["post-8491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-arms-procurement-commission","tag-commission-chair-judge-willie-seriti","tag-judge-hendrick-mmolli-thekiso-musi","tag-william-baloyi"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/seriti.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8495,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8491\/revisions\/8495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}