Court allows Zondo to correct state capture report

The Pretoria high court has given the go-ahead for corrections to be made to the state capture report after an application by the commission chair, chief justice Raymond Zondo.

Zondo applied for the corrections in August, saying nobody would be prejudiced by them and they would be in the public interest.

In a court order, signed on Wednesday, Gauteng deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba ordered that corrected versions of two volumes of the report may be delivered to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The two volumes are volume 2 of Part VI, to correct typos; and volume 3 of Part VI — to allow for new figures after the wrong ones were mistakenly included in the report.

The commission may also add into the report an analysis of the evidence of two witnesses, which was mistakenly omitted when the report was delivered on June 22, says the order.

Ledwaba said he came to his order after hearing counsel in chambers. The corrected versions had to be delivered on or before October 10.

Ledwaba also condoned the late delivery of the final instalment of the report and ordered that the commission is allowed to give the president “a version of Volume 4 of Part VI ... that has all the recommendations contained in all the volumes of the report”.

He said the failure to correct the language errors and include the document on the two witnesses’ evidence was due to exhaustion “as my team and I pushed ourselves to the limit” to finalise the report. The mistake with the figures was due to formatting and editing when documents were being merged, he said.

“In the end as chairperson of the commission I take responsibility for all these omissions and errors and regret any inconvenience to everybody,” said Zondo.

Ramaphosa did not oppose the application but reserved his right to seek more time to report back to parliament in light of the amendments.

The amendment “appears to be one of substance,” said the presidency’s director-general Phindile Baleni, answering the application, adding that it might affect the presidency’s ability to report to parliament by its October 22 deadline. 

The president must, in terms of the court’s order, formally submit the state capture commission’s report to parliament and indicate his intentions on its implementation by October 22.

Baleni said the president had gathered a team that was working with other departments and relevant agencies “to determine how most effectively to implement the SCC Report and its recommendations”. 

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