concluded its probe.^12
A 2016 report by amaBhungane highlighted further concerns over
forensic work by Pieterse and Open Water, this time involving the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and its then
CEO, Sibusiso Sibisi.^13
Pieterse’s forensic work was also severely criticised by a judge in the
Eastern Cape High Court in 2005. A forensic report compiled by
Pieterse formed the basis of a fraud case against three senior officials
from the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (EDC).^14 Mcebisi
Jonas, the EDC’s then CEO, was among the accused.^15 The fraud
charges were viewed as being part of a political witch-hunt, and Jonas
and his co-accused were eventually acquitted.^16 In his ruling, Judge
Dayalin Chetty said Pieterse’s report showed ‘a complete lack of
objectivity’, was ‘severely wanting’ and displayed an ‘erroneous
interpretation of the applicable legislation’, according to a Mail &
Guardian report.^17 The newspaper seemingly directly quoted from the
judgment, but Pieterse claimed the publication got it wrong. ‘The
Eastern Cape matter was my first encounter with the influence of
politics and the media on reality,’ he told me. ‘I have no doubt that in a
different time or a different province the outcome of the trial would
have been different.’
Meanwhile, after the FSHS officials were suspended, they naturally
demanded to see Open Water’s report. They wanted to see for
themselves how the probe had concluded that they were the guilty
parties. ‘We wrote to them [Open Water] and asked for the report, but
they never got back to us,’ claimed one of the axed officials. Some of
the suppliers implicated in the FSHS’s legal proceedings would later
have similar problems, the owner of one such business told me.
nora
(Nora)
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