Johannesburg - A witness who has asked that his identity be protected for fear of his life as he testifies at the Zondo commission has been granted permission to do so from a secret location.
Mr X, as he will be referred to, will provide the Commission with testimony related to payments allegedly made from Premier Attraction 1016 to the Jacob Zuma Foundation on the instructions of former SA Airways chairperson Dudu Myeni.
Zondo granted permission for evidence leaders to provide an explanation on the manner in which Mr X's evidence will be dealt with.
"The applicant is to be referred to, during his evidence, and after as Mr X. The applicant's name shall not be disclosed or published in any way. Nobody may take pictures of the applicant nor have his pictures of images published in any way. The applicant need not be present at the venue of the hearing when giving his evidence and he can give his evidence from a secret location. Nobody other than the chairperson or members of the commission's legal team may approach the secret location from which the witness will give evidence without prior written permission of the chairperson," Zondo said.
Evidence leader Advocate Kate Hofmeyr explained earlier that Mr X feared for his life for several reasons related to the evidence he is to provide the commission.
Premier Attraction is a company owned a run by the Thalenthe Myeni, the son of the former SAA board chairperson. Myeni junior appeared earlier and faced questions regarding an R2 million payment made from VNA Consultancy to his company. He claimed this payment was related to consultancy work his company had been subcontracted to do for VNA. The project related to a housing development in Mpumalanga.
Myeni struggled to recall the reasons behind the payment and told the inquiry that after five years he had not kept an invoice or documentation explaining the business transaction.
Myeni also faced questions regarding an R3 million payment made by Premier Attractions to a construction company Isibonelo Construction. These were three separate payments made between October 2015 and February 2016.
Myeni insisted that these payments were part of a business transaction and had nothing sinister about them.
"In respect to Isibonelo, the transactions were business transactions. I have no record of the nature of the transactions. I have no record of the business made with he said company due to the passage of time," he said.
Hofmeyr told the commission that Mr X will dispute Myeni's version and will testify that he had received instructions from Dudu Myeni to transfer various funds, with one set of funds having allegedly been paid to the Jacob Zuma Foundation.
Myeni senior had called Mr X's daughter earlier this year and threatened her, alleging that the father "had betrayed them", Hofmeyr recounted earlier.