The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry will continue proceedings against Major-General Feroz Khan, who is currently in critical condition following a shooting.
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The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry will proceed on Friday with evidence against senior Crime Intelligence officer Major-General Feroz Khan in his absence.
Khan was scheduled to testify before the commission on Wednesday but his legal team stated he is in an extremely critical condition following a shooting in Houghton on Sunday, and he is not simply "in a hospital bed eating jelly".
The witness’s legal representative, Advocate Zubair Khan, had filed an application for in-camera proceedings, but withdrew it after the commission took issue with its lack of specificity.
Adv Khan dismissed suggestions that the shooting incident was contrived and that Maj-Gen Khan was in good health in the hospital, saying he is unconscious, sedated, and unable to speak.
He added that the family requested the commissioners to visit Maj-Gen Khan in the hospital to witness his health condition firsthand, which contradicts the media and social media claims.
"There is allegation that this is a contrived shooting... that Maj-Gen Khan is, in fact, lying relaxed in hospital, eating jelly, that we invite the chairperson and all further commissioners to have access to him in hospital and to speak to his medical attendants and verify and satisfy yourselves that he is in fact in an extremely critical situation as set out in the J88," Adv Khan said.
He told the commission that Maj-Gen Khan's doctors have restrained the number of visitors he may receive.
Before withdrawing the in-camera bid, Adv Khan told the commission that the legal team had conceded that “not everything has to be in camera”.
Commission Chair Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga said: "We, as the commissioners, are not necessarily bound by what the evidence leader said... Nothing stops us if we were so minded - and I am not saying we are - from dismissing the application outright on the basis of vagueness. And I must tell you that outright I feel like the application is very vague."
For example, he said, he does not have an idea whether General Khan is seeking for only the evidence related to the Aeroton drug bust to be aired publicly.
"If that is the case the application does not explain why everything else is out of bounds in terms of being aired publicly," Madlanga said.
In response, Adv Khan said it was incorrect that only the Aeroton drug bust could be heard publicly, adding that the application must be read in its entire context.
He said part of the context was that as late as last week they received thousands of WhatsApp messages from the commission. He said if they were to spend 10 seconds reading each message it would take them at least 200 days to go through all of them.
Advocate Khan added they must consider the authenticity of the messages and whether they have been altered. He said the legal team invited supervised access to the devices, but this has not been forthcoming.
"As early as this weekend we received 11,000 pages of bank statements. We, of course, need to go through this," he said.
He said Khan's legal team was asking for the commission’s indulgence, arguing that there would be no prejudice or harm in giving the legal team more opportunity to supplement the application.
Madlanga insisted on knowing how Khan's public testimony would compromise state security, noting that none of the details provided answered his question about the application’s vagueness.
Following back-and-forth arguments on the vagueness of the in camera application, Adv Khan agreed to withdraw it before the commission.
He undertook to address the commission on Friday, after evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim SC said she intended to lead evidence against Maj-Gen Khan in his absence.
On Tuesday, uMkhonto weSizwe Party MP Vusi Shongwe testified that he was promised R10 million during a virtual meeting with Khan in Durban.
Shongwe said he never received the money. He said the money was allegedly meant to be handed over at a physical meeting with Khan in Sandton on March 10.
The offer came after he questioned Khan’s alleged links to illegal cigarette smuggling at a Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee on SAPS.
Shongwe was also promised a R2 million-a-month security contract at Checkers and a BMW with tinted windows.
Advocate Khan also apologised unreservedly for media comments implicating the commission in leaks and for raising concerns that Witness D, the late Marius van der Merwe, was shot after testifying.
Khan’s legal team also said people had come to Khan’s hospital ward at Milpark Hospital claiming they were sent by the commission to check on his condition.
Justice Madlanga said he would never send anyone to do that, and that the information disseminated by Khan’s legal team in the media had potentially impugned the commission’s reputation.
The commission is currently hearing Witness L’s testimony in-camera and will resume with a public hearing on Thursday.