| 3.1 |
Subject to anything to the contrary contained in these Rules or to the Chairperson’s directions in regard to any specific witness, the Commission’s Legal Team bears the overall responsibility to present the evidence of witnesses to the Commission. |
| 3.2 |
A member of the Commission’s Legal Team may put questions to a witness whose evidence is presented to the Commission by the Commission’s Legal Team including questions aimed at assisting the Commission in assessing the truthfulness of the evidence of a witness. Subject to the directions of the Chairperson, the Commission’s Legal Team may ask leading questions. |
| 3.3 |
If the Commission’s Legal Team intends to present to the Commission a witness, whose evidence implicates or may implicate another person, it must, through the Secretary of the Commission, notify that person ("implicated person") in writing within a reasonable time before the witness gives evidence: |
| 3.3.1 |
that he or she is, or may be, implicated by the witness’s evidence; |
| 3.3.2 |
in what way he or she is, or may be, implicated and furnish him or her with the witness’s statement or relevant portions of the statement; |
| 3.3.3 |
of the date when and the venue where the witness will give the evidence; |
| 3.3.4 |
that he or she may attend the hearing at which the witness gives evidence; |
| 3.3.5 |
that he or she may be assisted by a legal representative when the witness gives evidence; |
| 3.3.6 |
that, if he or she wishes: |
| 3.3.6.1 |
to give evidence himself or herself; |
| 3.3.6.2 |
to call any witness to give evidence on his or her behalf: or |
| 3.3.6.3 |
to cross-examine the witness; |
he or she must, within two weeks from the date of notice, apply in writing to the Commission for leave to do so; and
| 3.3.7 |
that the Chairperson will decide the application. |
| 3.4 |
An application in terms of Rule 3.3.6 above must be submitted in writing to the Secretary of the Commission with fourteen calendar days from the date of the notice referred to in Rule 3.3. The application must be accompanied by a statement from the implicated person responding to the witness’s statement in so far as it implicates him or her. The statement must make it clear what parts of the witness’s statement are disputed or denied and the grounds upon which those parts are disputed or denied. |
| 3.5 |
If an implicated person believes that the Commission’s Legal Team did not give him or her the notice referred to in Rule 3.3 within a reasonable time before the witness could or was to give evidence and that this may be prejudicial to him or her, he or she may apply to the Commission for such order as will ensure that he or she is not seriously prejudiced. |
| 3.6 |
In deciding an application contemplated in Rule 3.3.6, the Chairperson may, in his discretion and on such terms and conditions as he may deem appropriate, grant leave to an implicated person: |
| (b) |
to call a witness to give evidence on his behalf and/or |
| (c) |
to cross-examine the witness implicating him or her. |
| 3.7 |
In accordance with Regulations 8(3), there is no right to cross-examine a witness before the Commission but the Chairperson may permit cross-examination should he deem it necessary and in the best interests of the work of the Commission to do so. |
| 3.8 |
If the Chairperson grants leave to an implicated person in terms of Rule 3.6, a member of the Commission’s Legal Team may put questions to any witness who gives evidence pursuant to that ruling, including questions aimed at assisting the Commission in assessing the truthfulness of the evidence of a witness. Subject to the directions of the Chairperson, the Commission’s Legal Team may ask leading questions. |
| 3.9 |
An implicated person may apply to the Commission for leave to make written and/or oral submissions on the findings or conclusions that the Chairperson should make on the evidence placed before the Commission that relates to him or her. |
| 3.10 |
The Chairperson may, at any time, direct any person against whom allegations are made in a witness’s statement or evidence to respond in writing to the allegations relating to him or her in that statement or evidence and/or to answer in writing specific questions put to him or her by the Chairperson arising from the witness’s statement. |
Statistics Act, 1999
