Reaction pours in as Zondo announces Ramaphosa will testify in 2021

Some South Africans have welcomed the news that President Cyril Ramaphosa will appear before the commission of inquiry into state capture next year.

This after deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo announced on Monday that the work of the commission would be “incomplete” without Ramaphosa's testimony.

Zondo was briefing the media about the work done by the commission in the past two years. He said ANC members are also expected to give evidence before the commission, but said dates will only be confirmed at a later stage.

“I asked him [Ramaphosa] already in 2018. I had a meeting with him and I said that the work of the commission would not be complete without him or the government or the executive coming to the commission to give evidence.

“That relates to the fact that he was part of the executive during a lot of time or some of the years when some of the things that the commission is looking into are alleged to have happened and he was deputy president of the country. During other years he was not deputy president of the country, but was deputy president of the ANC,” said Zondo.

The chairperson said the evidence would help establish what he or the executive may have known about the events that allegedly happened.

TimesLIVE reports that the president has been mentioned at least three times in the evidence given by previous witnesses, including former Eskom executive Matshela Koko.

Zondo also assured South Africans that the credibility of the commission and its work will not be compromised even if the Guptas, who have been implicated numerous times don't testify.

Some have said Ramaphosa's testimony is important as he served alongside Jacob Zuma during his tenure as the president. Others weren't too optimistic and joked that the president would express his trademark “shock” before the commission.

Here are some of the responses: