‘Zuma doesn’t have absolute power’

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is not a “monarch” with absolute powers to appoint a judicial commission to probe state capture in the country.

This was reflected in the argument presented by Public Protector Busi Mkhwebane, the EFF, UDM, DA, Cope and former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor, as well as the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac) in the high court in Pretoria yesterday.

Zuma was asking the court to set aside former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “State of Capture” report, which ordered him to set up a judicial commission of inquiry to probe state capture.

The report recommended that the judge to lead such a commission should not be appointed by him, but by the chief justice. Zuma was challenging this recommendation.

Acting for Mkhwebane, Vincent Maleka SC, fired the first salvo against Zuma following his earlier submission through his lawyer, advocate Ishmael Semenya SC, that he, as president of the country, could not dictate how to establish a commission of inquiry and to appoint a judge.

Maleka said Zuma was implicated in the report and that the constitution prohibited him from investigating himself.

Lawyers acting for the defence were unanimous in their view that Zuma was prohibited from doing so under Section 96 of the constitution.

The section states that the president has an obligation to avoid the risk of a conflict of interest and also has a duty to act ahead of his personal interests.

Supporting Maleka’s view, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, acting on behalf of the EFF, said Section 96 of the constitution was clearly putting constraints on Zuma, saying he did not have “free reign to appoint a judicial commission” on his own terms.

Ngcukaitobi pointed out that Madonsela in her report had implicated Zuma, his son Duduzane, Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba and the Guptas in acts of wrongdoing.