State capture commission chair, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, wants to “humiliate” former president Jacob Zuma, and has gone out his way to paint him as a “liar” and “guilty at all costs”.
This is according to a scathing letter Zuma’s lawyer Eric Mabuza wrote to Zondo on Monday, levelling various accusations against him and wanting him to recuse himself as commission chair.
Zuma, the letter says, has been left with the “distinct impression that the chairperson seeks to target him for special treatment and public humiliation”.
The letter is the latest in a string of criticism hurled at Zondo from the former president’s corner - notably from his supporters, the Jacob G Zuma Foundation and his son, Edward - following a press conference last week.
At that briefing, Zondo said, among other things, that he would “not negotiate” dates for appearances with Zuma.
Zondo also set October 9 for the hearing of the inquiry’s application for the issuing of summons against Zuma, after the former president refused to appear before the inquiry this week, stating that he was busy preparing for his criminal trial. Zuma also said his doctors had advised him to limit his movements because his age makes him vulnerable to Covid-19.
This forced the inquiry’s legal team to make the application to compel Zuma to appear.
Zondo said the application would be heard on October 9, “with or without” Zuma’s legal team - and also fixed new dates for Zuma’s appearance for November 16-20.
“I have determined new dates for Mr Zuma’s appearance at the inquiry. No dates will be negotiated with them [Zuma’s legal team] or with him. This inquiry does not negotiate dates with witnesses. The inquiry fixes the dates and people appear,” Zondo said.
This inquiry does not negotiate dates with witnesses. The inquiry fixes the dates and people appear.
But Mabuza, in his letter, said the press conference - as well as previous comments Zondo had made to the media and during the commission’s proceedings - showed there was a targeting of Zuma that revealed the deputy chief justice’s “bias” against him.
This all “stems from the fact that [Zuma] and the chairperson have historical personal, family and professional relations that ought to have been publicly disclosed by the chairperson before accepting his appointment”, said Mabuza.
Specifics were not outlined, but Mabuza said Zuma would file a detailed affidavit outlining his reasons for requesting Zondo’s recusal.
“Viewed in the context of previous media statements, the conduct of the chairperson and treatment of President Zuma by the commission, the chairperson’s utterances have left President Zuma with the distinct impression that the chairperson seeks to target him for special treatment and public humiliation.
“President Zuma has always expressed his willingness to cooperate with the commission. This is in spite of his reservations about the legality of the commission and in particular your suitability as chairperson, given your personal relations with him.
“However, the conduct of the chairperson towards him has left President Zuma with no choice but to take this step in order to defend his rights as a citizen. President Zuma believes that the chairperson’s conduct has stripped this commission of its much-required and vaunted legitimacy,” Mabuza writes.
Some of the reasons for the request for the recusal were:
- “The chairperson’s election to reserve media conferences for President Zuma attests to the fact that he seeks to portray him as uncooperative and belligerent in the eyes of the public. No other witness has been subjected to such public rebuke through the media”;
- “It has become commonplace for the commission to parade a particular narrative through witnesses and to treat certain witnesses, particularly those who implicate President Zuma, with deference. It is apparent to President Zuma that the commission seeks to entrench a narrative that portrays him as guilty at all costs”;
- “The chairperson, in his engagements with witnesses testifying before him, has already prejudged the very issues he is tasked to investigate. In particular, he has already made prejudicial statements about President Zuma while addressing some witnesses who had made no reference to President Zuma”;
- “The chairperson refused to believe that President Zuma’s failure to appear before the commission early this year was due to his travel to seek medical treatment, again publicly portraying him as a liar”; and
- “The chairperson has joined the narrative that seeks to present President Zuma as the cause of all the corruption he is tasked to investigate.”
The letter adds that Zuma would take “no further part” in the commission - “and the chairperson is entitled to take any such step as he deems lawful and appropriate”.
“We are working through the record of the commission’s proceedings in order to finalise the application for your recusal, which will be filed in due course. Therein, we will set out in greater detail each of the grounds on the basis of which our client reasonably apprehends that the chairperson has lost all the requisite impartiality and is biased against him.
“Until this application for your recusal is finally determined, President Zuma will take no further part in this commission and the chairperson is entitled to take any such step as he deems lawful and appropriate. We reiterate that President Zuma has questioned the lawfulness of the establishment of this Commission. He persists with this issue and reserves all his right in this regard.
“In so far as the Chairperson interprets his own powers to be so absolute that no negotiation is necessary in order to agree appearance dates, we leave it in his capable hands to do as he deems appropriate,” the letter reads.
Sunday Times Daily has reached out to the commission for comment but has not received a response yet.
PODCAST | Zondo Commission begins to bare fruit as asbestos audit arrests wow SA
Subscribe: iono.fm | Spotify | Apple Podcast | Pocket Casts | Player.fm
