Zondo asks for another extension of the State Capture inquiry

Chief Justice and chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture Raymond Zondo has reportedly approached the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria seeking yet another extension.

In an affidavit, Zondo said the commission was “about to deliver” an electronic version of Part 4 of its report to President Cyril Ramaphosa “some time today (Friday) or this evening, or tomorrow morning”, and a hard copy on Monday, reports News24.

Although the commission had made progress in compiling the fourth part of the State Capture report, it had not been able to complete all the remaining topics and would consequently not meet the 30 April deadline, Zondo reportedly said in his affidavit.

The remaining topics reportedly include the SABC, Prasa, the Waterkloof incident, SSA and the Estina dairy farm.

Should the extension be granted, this will be the commission’s eighth extension since its establishment.

The last extension was granted in February, with the commission given until 30 April to complete its work.

When the commission approached the court for an extension in February, Zondo said the delays in submitting the full final report were due to a number of factors.

These included Zondo’s Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interview for the Chief Justice post as well as the fact that he needed more time to go through further documents on certain topics submitted to him.

Ramaphosa is expected to submit the final report to Parliament in August.

The president will also present an action plan for implementation of the report’s recommendations.

READ MORE: State capture: President Ramaphosa dodges the Bosasa bullet

The commission has already submitted three volumes of the inquiry’s report to the Presidency.

The commission was announced in early 2018, and tasked with investigating allegations of state capture along with public sector corruption and fraud.

The inquiry began its work in August of that year and was initially given 180 days to wrap up.

The Citizen previously reported that the commission has collected 71,000 pages in submissions from more than 300 witnesses ever since the inquiry began its work.

The commission has spent more than R1 billion.