September 15, 2013
Controversy had arisen over the refusal by the
Commonwealth Secretariat to make public a damning report on the impeachment of former Chief Justice Shirani Banadaranayake.
The ‘Langa’ report by former South African chief justice, Pius Langa which was commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat, has accused the government of precipitating a constitutions crisis of vast proportions.
Britain’s ‘The Sunday Times’ reported today that the report, which was handed over to the Commonwealth Secretariat in March, had been found in the belongings of the South African judge in July after his death.
Bandaranayake was impeached in January after she fell foul of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime, which brought a series of corruption charges against her, all of which she has denied.
Two reports were commissioned by the secretariat, one from the former South African chief justice and the other by Sir Jeffrey Jowell, a London QC.
Britain’s ‘The Sunday Times’ quoted Canada’s special envoy to the Commonwealth as saying Canada was “deeply troubled” over the decision by the Commonwealth Secretariat not to release the Langa report to the Commonwealth member states.
“When you have an opinion from a former Chief Justice that is so categorical and so devastating, the notion that the Commonwealth just looks the other way and pretends it never happened is deeply problematic,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
He said there was suspicion the issues was being “swept under the rug” as the Commonwealth did not want the Commonwealth summit in November to be jeopardised.
