Ramaphosa happy to testify at Zondo commission
The president says he would not 'run away' from a commission that the ANC called for in the first place.
Former president Jacob Zuma and President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: GCIS/AFP
At a parliamentary question and answer session, president Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his openness to testifying at the commission of inquiry into state capture if called on to do so.
“As president of the ANC I can never dissociate myself and run away from a commission that we said should be set up,” he said.
“The issue of state capture is one that has affected all in the country. Details have come as a shock and things that were not apparent are now being put forward,” Ramaphosa continued.
“We are all paying attention to what is being said. We should continue to hear the evidence,” he said.
The president also expressed a desire to “bring back” the money lost during the alleged looting of the state.
Whether Ramaphosa would indeed be asked to testify at the commission is unclear.
READ MORE: State capture proceedings postponed until further notice
Opposition politicians including Mmusi Maimane and Julius Malema have expressed the opinion that, as vice president during Jacob Zuma’s term in office, Ramaphosa cannot be considered totally clean.
“I think we could elect anybody, and I think you can conclude that South Africans will feel much more optimistic just by virtue of where we were,” said Maimane in reaction to our current president’s first 100 days in office.
“But what we need to realise is that the view that Mr Ramaphosa is suddenly angelic and is flown from somewhere is amiss because he was the deputy president in Zuma’s administration for a number of years,” he added.
Malema, meanwhile, accused Ramaphosa’s brother-in-law, Patrice Motsepe, of being guilty of “state capture” himself and doing the same thing the Guptas did, in his speech at the party’s fifth birthday celebrations in the Eastern Cape.
It was reported earlier today that the commission of inquiry into state capture has announced that they have postponed hearings until further notice.
In a statement, the commission said the hearings of the judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture corruption and fraud in the public sector, including organs of state that were supposed to be held on Wednesday at 10am, have been postponed.
The commission said it would announce its programme on Wednesday.
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