ANC calls on Zuma to comply with Public Protector recommendation

The national conference of the ANC has resolved that President Jacob Zuma should immediately appoint the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture as recommended by former public protector Thuli Madonsela.

This exerts more pressure on Zuma to appoint the commission following a court ruling that ordered him last Wednesday to appoint the commission within 30 days.

This is a blow for Zuma as the president has expressed his intention to appeal the court ruling.

The conference affirmed an earlier decision taken by the ANC national executive committee that Zuma appoint the commission.

In addition‚ Zuma appears to have lost the battle within the ANC as the national conference resolved that the commission should only focus on Madonsela's recommendations. Zuma and his supporters in the NEC were pushing for a broad inquiry dating back to 1994.

Madonsela released the report in November last year concerning allegations of an improper relationship between President Jacob Zuma‚ his son Duduzane‚ other state officials and the Gupta family.

"On the ANC reputation and integrity dealing with corruption‚ [it was decided that we] implement the national executive committee resolution on state capture including the expeditious establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry‚" said Fikile Mbalula‚ chairperson of the ANC NEC's subcommittee on organisational renewal.

Last week the court found that Zuma could not effectively exercise his powers as head of state due to personal conflict of interest.

"The public protector’s recommendation as adopted by the national executive committee‚ is being implemented. The NEC said they agree with the judicial commission of inquiry which arose from the public protector recommendations‚ so they need to be implemented expeditiously‚" added Mbalula.

On top of that‚ the court also found that Madonsela’s remedial action was broad enough to also encompass the revelations in the tranche of leaked Gupta e-mails‚ which came to light after the release of the State of Capture report.

The commission has been given 180 days to complete its work.