OPINION | Haibo, three more months? Zondo inquiry cannot go on forever

There are two important bodies in SA today whose running and decision making are highly questionable.

These are the government’s National Coronavirus Command Council and the state capture commission of inquiry.

The former seems to be premised on the belief that persistent lockdowns, imposing curfews and the banning and unbanning of alcohol are the most effective ways to control a virus that is yet to be isolated.

The command council has been doing this for 15 months on the trot despite its obvious failure to yield positive results while government’s rollout of the lifesaving Covid-19 vaccines has been an outright sham.

The command council antics are similar to the Zondo commission, which is convinced that having allegedly corrupt politicians and government administrators paraded at its inquisitorial hearings on a daily basis for three years non-stop will put the brake on corruption.

This while the NPA has little to nothing to show on successfully prosecuting state capture cases in the three years since the inquiry started.

The state capture inquiry, instead of wrapping up its oral hearings and compiling its report, has now applied for extensions on three occasions with the latest manoeuvre as recently as this week.

The commission was first billed to complete its work in 18 months which expired in February 2020. At the time, it applied for an extension until December last year, but the court granted it time until March this year. It still could not finish and applied for a three-month extension until June 2021, and now it has since applied for a further three months running into September.

One is puzzled by this determination not to bring down the curtain on the state capture commission, especially because on more than five separate occasions its chairperson, DCJ Raymond Zondo, has publicly stated it does not have to investigate everything but will refer some of the issues to law enforcement agencies.

This critique does not suggest the commission’s work is of no significance, but for it to go on and on is simply unsustainable and should not be allowed.

In any case, even once the Zondo commission makes its recommendations, it will still be the NPA that decides if criminal charges must follow.

The question then arises: why keep on extending the commission’s lifespan indefinitely, despite the huge financial nuisance it has become to the SA taxpayer?

This critique does not suggest the commission’s work is of no significance, but for it to go on and on is simply unsustainable and should not be allowed.

For a country with myriad challenges such as rising levels of poverty, skyrocketing unemployment and an ailing economy, the Zondo commission cannot become a permanent feature of SA’s daily life.

In any event, judicial commissions of inquiry in this country have proven to be no more than talk shops that have no convincing results to justify the public funds spent on them.

History is my witness in this regard: remember the arms deal commission, or the Marikana commission? The list goes on.

With this in mind, South Africans wait with bated breath to see successful prosecutions of those alleged to have aided and partaken in the pillaging of state resources during the state capture years.

The Zondo commission has done its part. It is now time it delivers its report and hands the baton to law enforcement.

With these endless extensions, it is becoming a critical question whether or not the commission actually has a sense of where it is going and what it is trying to accomplish.

For instance, what material facts inform Zondo’s now tiring requests for extensions on which he puts timeframes he has failed to meet? What becomes of the contribution of head of the legal team adv Paul Pretorius SC and investigation head Terence Nombembe in setting this timeframes?

The Zondo commission has done its part. It is now time it delivers its report and gives law enforcement the baton.

It is reasonable to conclude that either the inquiry is a case of the blind leading the blind or the commission chairperson is wittingly or unwittingly taking the South African public for a ride.

With the evidence leaders scoring as much as R38,000 per appearance, the commission has become a convenient cash cow while also an unbearable financial burden to the taxpayer who is barely scraping by thanks to a stagnant economy.

Of course it would be myopic to suggest the R800m-plus spent on the commission as per the last official count is enough to tackle issues such as poverty, unemployment and Covid-19 vaccines, but surely redirecting such funds to bolster the capacity of the NPA is a sensible thing to do to bring looters of public funds to book.

The Hawks and the NPA can, therefore, rightly argue it is time for Zondo to bring down the curtain on the commission.

The sooner he does that, the better for everyone.