Chair of the state capture commission Raymond Zondo was “being less than candid” about his relationship with Jacob Zuma, said the former president in an affidavit on Wednesday.
After receiving the affidavit, Zondo, scheduled to hand down a ruling on whether he would recuse himself at 3pm, postponed the ruling to consider it. The commission said the ruling would be given at 10am on Thursday morning.
The president’s affidavit was replying to a statement made by the deputy chief justice at the beginning of proceedings on Monday morning, just before an application by Zuma for Zondo’s recusal got under way. The deputy chief justice said he wished to read a personal statement of fact into the record.
In it he spelt out the history of his relationship with Zuma from the early 1990s – professionally and personally – in response to Zuma’s recusal application, one of the grounds having been their personal relationship. In a statement from the commission in October, Zondo had revealed he had a baby 25 years ago with the sister of Thobeka Madiba, who was later to marry Zuma.
After he had finished, Zuma’s counsel, Muzi Sikhakhane SC, said Zuma would need to consider the statement and whether to respond. On Wednesday morning, the response came. In it Zuma said there were aspects “I completely dispute as untrue”.
One of the biggest points of dispute between the two was whether they had – after Zondo was appointed as judge – discussed their relationship going forward.
In his application, Zuma had characterised their relationship as one of friendship and had said that, when Zondo was elevated to the bench, they “discussed whether our personal relationship would jeopardise his judicial career”.
“We agreed that we would relate in a manner that would ensure that his judicial career is not adversely affected. I understood and appreciated that he wanted to draw a line in my relationship with him that could not create the public perception that he relied on me, as president, to rise in his judicial career.”
But in his statement, Zondo said no such discussion “ever took place nor could have taken place” – since his elevation to the bench happened in 1997 before Zuma became president. “As he was not president and was only an MEC he could not have had any influence on my rise in my judicial career,” said Zondo.
But Zuma said though Zondo sought to diminish his role, he was national chairperson of the ANC, which was consulted on a wide range of issues regarding judicial appointments. “His attempt to communicate that I was insignificant in the national political arena is untrue,” said Zuma.
He also said Zondo could not deny they had met at his house in Forest Town – “at night” – and had discussed how to “manage their friendship in such a way that it would not raise suspicion of impropriety or hinder his judicial ambition”.
Zuma also disputed Zondo’s assertions about the number of times the two had met at Zuma’s residences. Zondo said there were “two or so” occasions when Zuma was not in government – between 2005 and 2007 – when Zuma had asked for a meeting with Zondo and they had met at a hotel in Durban where Zuma was staying. Then “there was one time when I also asked for a meeting with him about 13 or 14 years ago when he was still out of government and I met him in his Forest Town house in Johannesburg”.
“On that occasion I wanted to raise with him a matter that I considered of public importance,” said Zondo, but did not say what that was.
But Zuma said: “My meeting(s) with him at Forest Town was during my tenure as deputy president of the Republic of South Africa. In fact we met several times in my residence at Forest Town.”
Zuma said it was “interesting” that Zondo did not reveal what the matter of public importance was. “I would expect that a person in his position would be more forthcoming about the nature of a meeting to which he refers in his statement. He elects to leave out the precise issue that compelled him to meet me,” said Zuma.
