The silk accused by the ‘Prasa Judge’ Annah Makhubele of unprofessional conduct says he was not going to lie to the court or withhold crucial information contained in an SMS she sent him. According to Rapport, Francois Botes SC, former chairperson of the Pretoria Bar, responded to the allegations raised by Makhubele by saying there was no agreement to keep communication between him and the judge confidential and that it was not privileged. Makhubele claims in her complaint to the Bar that Botes acted unprofessionally by disclosing an ‘informal’ communication between them to the court to challenge the authority of Bowmans Gilfillan to act on behalf of Prasa. Makhubele was Prasa chairperson at the time and Botes was acting for the Siyaya liquidators who are in a protracted dispute with the parastatal. The SMS was the catalyst for a series of events that led to a judgment by Judge Neil Tuchten questioning the conduct of his colleague, Makhubele. In turn, this led to Makhubele’s complaint of racism, ‘hate speech’ and unprofessional conduct against Tuchten at the JSC – allegations which Tuchten denies. Botes says in his response to the Bar complaint that Makhubele initially approached him in November 2017 to say that she had been appointed by former President Jacob Zuma to ‘clean up’ Prasa. According to Botes, Makhubele requested information about the Siyaya case as she said she did not trust Prasa’s legal department or Prasa’s attorneys.

According to the minutes of Siyaya’s insolvency hearing, disgraced former Prasa boss Lucky Montana and former chief engineer, ‘Dr’ Daniel Mtimkulu, vouched for the authenticity of Siyaya’s outstanding claims against Prasa, notes Rapport. It adds that although an arbitration process was settled to pay Siyaya R58m, Prasa later said the settlement and Prasa’s lack of opposition to claims from Siyaya was unduly influenced. The matter in which Tuchten made the comments about his colleague, was an application by Prasa to interdict the Sheriff from paying over the R58m to Siyaya’s liquidators pending a fresh challenge to Siyaya’s claims. Tuchten granted the order at the end of last year. Siyaya’s dealings with Prasa have long been controversial. The company reportedly earned more than R5bn from Prasa and more than R630m between 2014 and 2017 alone, says the report.