Lucky Montana has demanded that the evidence leader of the State Capture Commission, advocate Vas Soni, recuse himself from proceedings.
Soni has been cross-examining Montana in relation to his controversial tenure at the rail agency, as well as allegations that he used R36 million of its funds to purchase properties around Gauteng with lawyer Riaan van der Walt.
Montana’s questionable property purchases in lush suburbs have faced immense scrutiny, even outside of the commission and he has denied there was anything dubious behind them.
Advocate Soni grilled Montana about his business relationship with Van der Walt, the director of a company called Precise Trade. He also had links to Siyangena Technologies, a company which irregularly scored billions worth of contracts with Prasa. Both Montana and Van der Walt have enjoyed a rather profitable relationship, to say the least.
“Soni should recuse himself. He is showing signs of being biased. It is not in the interest of justice to continue like this. This narrative that Siyangena was given R4 million in contracts. The allegations were that it, for sure, made payments towards my properties through TTM Holdings,” Montana said.
“There is no Siyangena in any of the properties I have invested in. He is conflicted. He is so emotionally invested and passionate about this, because if I was not here, we were going to move from the basis that TTM paid Precise Trade. TTM did not pay Precise Trade”
It is alleged Montana used a shell company named Trade and Invest to purchase the houses through Van der Walt who has since left the country.
This isn’t the first time Montana has taken issue with Soni, having told the commission back in April that he is conflicted, having done work for Werksmans Attorneys.
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