- Yakhe Kwinana says investigators for the Zondo Commission could have done more to find documentation that would prove she had a legitimate relationship with JM Aviation.
- She has been accused of receiving millions of rands in kickbacks in exchange for securing lucrative contracts for JM Aviation at SAA.
- Kwinana says the documents that prove she had a legitimate business relationship with JM Aviation - rather than receiving bribes - went missing when her server was confiscated.
Investigators for the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture could have done more to find the documentation that would support her testimony, former South African Airways board member and chair of SAA Technical Yakhe Kwinana said on Saturday.
Kwinana was giving evidence on a weekend following delays that placed the inquiry under pressure to complete its work. She has been accused of receiving millions of rands in kickbacks in exchange for securing lucrative contracts for JM Aviation at SAA.
Kwinana steadfastly denies that she had any personal financial interest in the matter.
Hofmeyr had quizzed Kwinana about a possible conflict of interest in her relationship with JM Aviation and its owner, Vuyo Ndzeku, which she and Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo argued should have been disclosed - leading to a possible recusal from decision-making relating to tender bids.
Hofmeyr also scrutinised a series of payments from JM Aviation and from Ndzeku's wife, a Ms. Hendricks, suggesting there was no evidence of a legitimate business relationship to support the payments.
Kwinana failed to submit the supporting documentation requested by the commission in September.
Asked why this was the case, Kwinana said the annual financial statements she submitted to Ndzeku in January proved there was a legitimate relationship.
However, she said, she was not able to submit the documents the commission had requested because the server on which they were kept had been confiscated in February by the company that owned it.
The documents were "required alongside a whole lot of other information that basically went missing", she said.
But "your investigators could have gone and found out what is there," she told Zondo.
Pressed by Zondo and Hofmeyr on why she would not submit what she did have, even if some documentation were unavailable, she acknowledged that would have made sense.
Evidence leader Kate Hofmeyr appeared unconvinced, saying she planned to posit that Kwinana was a "dishonest" witness who "turns the facts every time".