Montana demands Zondo commission advocate to recuse himself

 Montana believes Soni is biased. 

Montana appeared at the commission again on Tuesday.

He was probed about the details of his business transactions with former Pretoria lawyer Riaan van der Walt.

Montana told the commission on Monday that himself and Van der Walt were involved in a property development business. 

He admitted to selling property to van der Walt for R6.8 million but said this money was never paid to his bank account.

“I confirm selling a property to Mr. Van der Walt for R6.8 million and he paid me. From the proceeds, I instructed him to use R2 million to settle a bond in Parkwood, R2 million paid to the Hurlingham home, and R2.2 million to the Waterkloof property.”

He said parts of that money were paid to different entities.

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Montana accused Soni of leading his evidence based on statements from people who have an agenda to discredit him.

He brought this up when Soni asked him about a deal contracted he had entered with a Pretoria property owner Carla de Beer, who said she wanted to sell her Waterkloof home and entered a deal with Montana.

De Beer said Montana was meant to make R10.5 million from the interest in the sale of that home but the deal fell off due to problems.

Montana denied this, said the deal did not happen because Absa Bank told him De Beer's property value was too low for that amount. 

"The commission is reliant on this issue, and I'm being led on selective evidence. To have a total picture we must look at history. I am saying the reason why the sale did not go through is that the bank said certain things of which she said I can't sell the deal.

"On the Parkwood property, Mr. Soni relied on documents provided by Werksman's attorneys that were presented through an illegal process," he said.

Montana further accused Soni of withholding documents.

He said Siyangena Technologies have submitted an affidavit to the commission stating that they never paid money into Precise Trade an investment, a company owned by De Beer, and this affidavit was not being presented in the evidence. 

"Siyangena said they never paid a cent to Precise Trade and that is not being read or presented. I asked Mr. Van der Walt if Precise trade got money from Siyangena, he said no. And then we find that what they rely on are the notes he had made, I asked him about the account in his notes.

"Mr. Soni just said the payment of R3.5 million paid to Precise Trade was paid by Siyangena. Chair, this is false," added Montana

Chairperson Raymond Zondo intervened stating that he believed any other document related to Montana's evidence would be used at some stage.