Zuma says he challenged state capture report to protect country’s integrity

Former president Jacob Zuma said his challenge of former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s directive that he set up a commission of inquiry into state capture was not meant to protect himself but to safeguard the country’s integrity.

The Business Day reports that Zuma filed court papers last week in which he says he had been concerned that acting on Madonsela’s directive to establish an inquiry would have exposed him to acting unconstitutionally.

Zuma is quoted in the court papers as saying that this would mean the inquiry would have been tarnished with legal and constitutional uncertainties.

The former president said this meant it was important for him to be certain that Madonsela’s directive could pass constitutional muster “for the integrity of the commission of inquiry depended on the constitutional foundations”.

The publication reports that Zuma has approached the Supreme Court of Appeal in an attempt to avoid paying for the legal costs of his abortive attempts to overturn Madonsela’s state capture report.

Zuma, according to Business Day, filed papers with the court in which he dismisses claims that he had acted out of self-interest and sought to frustrate the investigation by challenging the former public protector’s report.

“These findings are without any basis whatsoever,” Zuma is quoted in the court papers, adding that the high court had failed to appreciate the seriousness of the constitutional issues in Madonsela’s findings, “which the president sought to review and set aside”.

In December last year, the High Court in Pretoria ordered the then president to appoint a commission of inquiry into state capture and to personally pay the legal costs of his abortive applications to stop the report’s release and overturn the remedial action. The court said the applications were ill-advised, the public should not have to pay the legal bill and Zuma was trying to protect himself – as he was implicated in the report.

In January, Zuma appointed a commission to investigate allegations of state capture, but resigned and was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the country just a month later.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.