Ramaphosa will testify at state capture commission, says Zondo

Chair of the commission of inquiry into state capture, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, says President Cyril Ramaphosa will testify at the commission.

Zondo told Power to Truth with JJ Tabane on eNCA on Sunday that the president had personally confirmed to him that he would give evidence.

He said: “I asked the president before the end of 2018. I said to him: ‘Mr President, this commission cannot finish its work without you coming to give evidence and the ruling party without giving evidence because they’ve been around when a lot of these things happened. The president said ‘I will come’.”

Ramaphosa indirectly committed former president Jacob Zuma to cooperate with the commission of inquiry into state capture at the ANC’s national executive committee meeting last week.

“We confirm the willingness of our members to cooperate with the commission and to refrain from any unnecessary attacks on the Deputy Chief Justice and the work that he has been asked to do by the South African nation,” he said.

However, in a letter to the court’s acting registrar last week, Zuma’s attorney, Eric Mabuza, said he would not participate in the commission’s Constitutional Court bid to force him to appear before Zondo.

The commission had filed an urgent application for direct access to the ConCourt, in which it also seeks an order that Zuma must answer to allegations that “concern his alleged failure as president and head of the national executive to fulfil his constitutional obligations”.

In response, Mabuza wrote: “We are instructed by our client, President JG Zuma that he will not be participating in these proceedings at all.”

This means the inquiry application will not be opposed.

But because Zuma has not opposed the relief the commission seeks, commission lawyers will argue in court the former president was obliged to appear and give evidence in accordance with the fresh summons, regardless of his review application, challenging Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s refusal to recuse himself.

They have argued that Zuma’s decision not to participate “at all” in the state capture inquiry’s Constitutional Court bid to force him to appear and answer questions in January and February 2021 is “yet a further instance of Mr Zuma’s refusal to account for his unlawful conduct”.

READ MORE: Zuma should appear before Zondo despite his review application – commission lawyers

Additional reporting, News24 Wire

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