Zondo bid to get Zuma back at State Capture Commission comes to a head

Former president Jacob Zuma’s defiance of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture is a blatant violation of the foundational constitutional value of accountability.

That is according to the commission’s secretary, Professor Itumeleng Mosala, in his heads of argument, to be dealt with in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday as they try to force Zuma back to the commission.

Zuma said through his lawyer he would no longer be taking part. There was no shortage of drama at the commission this year, with the likes of Popo Molefe, Lucky Montana, Dudu Myeni, Pravin Gordhan and Zuma making waves.

The commission started the year on shaky ground, staring down the barrel of what was then a two-month deadline to wrap up its work. But at the 11th hour, the High Court in Pretoria threw the commission a lifeline and extended its deadline to March 2021.

Things got off to a slow start, with Angelo Agrizzi – the former chief operations officer at Bosasa – testifying again briefly in March. His testimony in 2019 sent shockwaves around the country. But this time around, it was less explosive and limited to an apology to former correctional services official Jabulile Sishuba, whom Agrizzi said he had previously implicated erroneously.

Later that month, the Covid-19 pandemic brought the public hearings to a grinding halt.

But things started heating up after public hearings resumed at the end of June, with Molefe – the former chair of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) board – implicating Montana, the former chief executive, in the award of billions of rands worth of dodgy contracts.

Montana denied the allegations in a letter to commission chair Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, accusing him of bias.

Then, in August, Public Enterprises Minister Gordhan, who was one of the first witnesses to appear after the commission started in 2018, was a no-show for a scheduled appearance.

He was meant to make his second appearance for cross-examination by former SA Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane’s legal representative, but wound up not being able to make it due to Cabinet meetings – raising Zondo’s ire in the process.

And it was all out war in September when Zuma – through his lawyers – wrote to Zondo calling for the chair to recuse himself. This on the back of Zondo having announced he would be hearing an application to subpoena Zuma after all the commission’s other efforts to get him into the witness box had come to nought.

The application went ahead nonetheless and was successful, with Zuma being subpoenaed to appear in mid-November. He never made it to the stand, though, and staged a dramatic walkout after his formal application for Zondo’s recusal was dismissed.

Zuma is appealing this through the courts. In the meantime, Zondo has directed the commission to lay a criminal complaint against Zuma and approached the Constitutional Court for an order compelling him to comply. The case is expected to be heard soon.

Myeni – the former chair of SA Airways – made a much-anticipated appearance in November. But she started her testimony by invoking her “right to silence” and refusing to answer any questions for fear “I may incriminate myself”.

Gordhan eventually made his second appearance in November, during which he and Moyane’s lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu, became embroiled in a series of charged exchanges.

The commission will resume in January, with evidence on Eskom. It also still has to hear evidence from the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa before it wraps up its work.

Zondo was hopeful the commission could wrap up oral testimony by March but said he needed an additional three months.

bernadettew@citizen.co.za

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