State capture inquiry chairperson and chief justice Raymond Zondo has denied meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss the “timing” of the release of the commission’s final report.
This comes after it was reported on Monday that Zondo had postponed the planned release of the report owing to discussions about its timing with Ramaphosa.
This birthed accusations by the DA that Ramaphosa was unduly interfering with the inquiry’s work.
Zondo has since rubbished the claims, saying he asked for the postponement to give himself time to do quality checks on the report before it went out for public consumption.
“The chairperson of the commission wishes to provide the following clarification about the postponement of the handover of the report to the president. The chairperson and the president did not have any meeting yesterday,” reads a statement from Zondo’s office.
“The postponement was agreed upon at the insistence of the chairperson as he wished to check the report for errors for the last time. The president never interfered in any way with the work of the chairperson or of the commission.
“The chairperson wanted to have one final opportunity for quality assurance as he was at the Judicial Service Commission interview [on Monday] and could not do that until some time in the afternoon.”
The final report is due for release on Wednesday.
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