Lamola confirms deadline for state capture report

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola has confirmed 1 January 2022 as the submission day for the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture chaired by acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

“On 1 January 2022, the final report will be with President Cyril Ramaphosa,” Lamola confirmed in an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Thursday evening.

According to Lamola, only Zondo knows the progress of the report so far.

“We have to give him the space to dissect the information and make the recommendations,” he said.

This after the commission was in September granted a three-month extension by the Pretoria High Court.

Zondo had requested that he be given until 31 December to finalise the report to be handed over to Ramaphosa.

This was the fifth extension that has been granted to the commission since its establishment.

The commission so far has spent more than R1 billion.

Zondo previously revealed that the commission had collected 71,000 pages in submissions from more than 300 witnesses ever since the inquiry began its work almost three years ago.

Lamola defends integrity of JSC

The justice minister further defended the integrity of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) after it was criticised for the manner in which it conducted interviews in the past few weeks.

The JSC has another task of interviewing candidates who will replace former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

Ramaphosa on Wednesday shortlisted four candidates whose names have been submitted to the JSC and leaders of political parties represented in the National Assembly.

The four candidates shortlisted by Ramaphosa are:

• Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo
• Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga
• SCA President Mandisa Maya
• Gauteng JP Dunstan Mlambo

Lamola believes the JSC will do a great job in ensuring the country gets the most suitable candidate from the four.

“The JSC is the most diverse and representative structure, with politicians, academics, lawyers, judges, making it the most capable structure to produce the best results for the country,” he said.

“For any process, there will be those who are not happy, but we are happy that the JSC has done everything in line with the constitution.”