Retired ConCourt judge 'tried to pay me off’

Text messages and a voice recording have exposed retired Constitutional Court Justice Zak Yacoob allegedly offering the sacked director of the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society money ‘to make her go away’ and drop her challenge at a dispute resolution body. In what The Star calls a heated 11-minute phone call, recorded by Shamilla Surjoo, Yacoob can be heard asking her how much money she wants. Surjoo replies that she is not bought by money and is a person of integrity. She has referred Yacoob to her lawyer. ‘I am not going to speak to your stupid lawyer. Your lawyer is the most idiotic lawyer I have ever seen in the world,’ Yacoob says. An upset Surjoo tells Yacoob she wants the truth to prevail and for the matter to be settled in court. He then retorts: ‘You were a bad director’, before repeatedly asking Surjoo what she wants. She eventually says she wants to be reinstated. ‘The only debate between us is that you think you are a wonderful director. And I think you’re a horrible director and are not to be reinstated,’ Yacoob says. Surjoo accuses Yacoob of belittling her. He then asks her if she has reported the society to the Department of Labour, and she says yes. ‘What a stupid woman you are. I told them you are the criminal. That you have been horribly negligent in the performance of your duties and I told them that they should not listen to you at all.’ He questions why she has kept a cellphone belonging to the society and accuses her of hiding information. Surjoo accuses him of harassment before ending the call.

Surjoo said she refused to be used as a ‘scapegoat’. The Star report says she was fired two weeks ago following a disciplinary hearing on the theft of R12m from the society. Surjoo was found guilty of gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duties and loss of trust, by an independent disciplinary committee. A financial officer who had online authority for four of the organisation’s bank accounts allegedly transferred funds into her personal accounts from 2013. She reported directly to Surjoo. She was dismissed in January, but no criminal action taken. Surjoo said her attorneys, Cox Yeats, were disputing the fairness of her dismissal at the CCMA and the texts and phone calls were an attempt to make her drop the case. Yacoob admitted to making the calls to Surjoo and sending her text messages. He said he had sent through a written apology to her attorney stating that he would not contact her again. According to The Star report, he also admitted he offered her money to ‘make her go away’, but made the call under circumstances where he had been very stressed due to the situation at the organisation. ‘I wanted to end all this ... I made the call at a very difficult time, as I was upset at what was happening. Yes, I offered her money. ... I was very happy to end the whole debate and said to her, let’s end this and try and fix it.’

Full report in The Star (subscription needed)