Anna Majavu

Anna Majavu

A senior counsel at the Centre for Constitutional Rights has vowed to take President Kgalema Motlanthe to court if he did not appoint an independent judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal by next week.

Advocate Paul Hoffman told Sowetan yesterday: "If Motlanthe refuses to appoint a commission, we will make an application to the Constitutional Court ordering him to appoint the commission under Section 167(4)(e) of the Constitution."

Section 167(4)(e) of the Constitution allows the Constitutional Court to decide that "parliament or the president has failed to fulfill a constitutional obligation. "I hope he ( Motlanthe) is going to appoint a commission of inquiry. He knows right from wrong," Hoffman said.

His threat follows the release of a letter yesterday from Nobel Peace laureates Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk to Motlanthe, calling on him to appoint the commission by next week Wednesday.

Motlanthe's spokesman, Thabo Masebe, said Motlanthe would only comment "once he has replied to the peace laureates who made the call".