Help SA, Batohi… charge state capture rockstars now

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, headed by deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, has been at work for 170 days today and the amount of testimony, affidavits, and other evidence he has to wade through is, by anyone’s standard, staggering.

Zondo is only expected to submit his recommendations by end of June next year – by when his workload will have tripled, at the very least.

Zondo is supported by Terence Nombembe (CEO of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants) who heads up investigations and advocate Paul Pretorius as head of the legal team.

Gentlemen.

It’s time to take a breather and put out an interim report or recommendation, whichever nomenclature you wish to use.

The commission only really began when former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas spilled the beans on the controversial Gupta family and disgraced president Jacob Zuma.

And there have been more than a few doozys since then: Angelo Agrizzi, whose testimony set the stage alight; Vytjie Mentor, whose testimony fizzled like a damp squib; Zuma who waffled and coughed his way through hours of vacuous self-pity and conspiracies; matched only by Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s rambling God complex diatribe against everything; Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza’s incredible testimony on how Eskom was looted; and so on and so on.

It’s all there ripe for the picking, and to dump two years’ worth of recommendations in one go is going to be heavy going.

Ah, for the days of the Sars Commission of Inquiry where retired Justice Robert Nugent as commissioner, assisted by Michael Katz, Advocate Mabongi Masilo, and Vuyo Dominic Kahla took names and kicked ass before riding off into the sunset.

And ever since then, crickets – and it’s not impossible for the same to happen to Zondo’s recommendations.

If anyone doubts there was a concerted attempt to destabilise Sars, put down whatever is dimming your reality and start paying attention. Just because dooby is legal now, doesn’t mean you have to smoke it.

Start by reading Nugent’s finding, or any one of former Sars group executive Johan van Loggerenberg’s three books. There’s plenty of information there.

Nugent was very careful not to allow himself to be flooded with unnecessary documents/people, noting “… it will not be diverted from inquiring into what is wrong at Sars, and how it can be righted, by attempts to use it for other ends”.

There’s been little evidence of the animosity shown towards the Nugent commission presenting itself at the Zondo inquiry, although it does appear Nugent ran a tighter ship.

Still, each to their own and my opinion remains that – my opinion.

What isn’t opinion, is that as a country, we need – not want – to start seeing a few of the state capture rockstars appearing in court.

There can be specially designated commission of Inquiry courts, headed by senior high court judges and assisted by assessors who won’t take any bull from duckers and divers who will want to twist the law to avoid prosecution and accountability.

When advocate Shamila Batohi took over as director of public prosecutions at the national prosecuting authority, she pleaded for time.

Time’s up, advocate.

Amanda Watson.

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