Former South African president Jacob Zuma on Monday said that he would not attend the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture sessions in defiance of last week’s order by the country’s Constitutional Court for him to appear before the panel to answer to corruption allegations.
Zuma, who walked out of the inquiry’s hearing last November, took his case to the court to request it to excuse him from attending the hearings because he alleged that commission head Raymond Zondo is biased against him.
The Constitutional Court, however, did not agree with Zuma’s arguments, telling him that his presence at the commission was a “matter of public interest” which he was obliged to honour as a witness.
But in his Monday statement, a defiant Zuma said he would not attend the hearings and would let the law take its course for he did not fear being arrested.
“I do not fear being convicted nor do I fear being incarcerated,” the former president said, adding that the Constitutional Court had been “politicised”.
Zuma walked out of the commission’s hearings in November 2020 after failing in his bid to have Deputy Chief Justice Zondo recuse himself as the commission’s presiding officer due to his perceived bias against him.
The former head of state said the Zondo Commission should be renamed as the “Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture Against Zuma” as he felt the entire proceedings had targeted him.
Ironically, the probe was set up while Zuma was in office following the country’s Ombudsman report recommending to the state to probe the allegations that his friends, the Gupta brothers, had corrupt dealings with state-owned enterprises.
Over 30 witnesses have implicated Zuma during their testimonies, thereby needing his presence to refute or confirm the allegations, Zondo said.
NM/jn/APA