Justice Malala Weighing in Zuma squealing because noose is tightening

President Cyril Ramaphosa missed an important deadline on October 15. Ramaphosa was supposed to announce the government’s plan to implement the recommendations of the state capture commission led by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. He failed to make that much-awaited announcement.

To be fair, Ramaphosa did tell parliament on September 30 that he might miss his deadline because the commission’s report was delayed and, when it was delivered on 23 June, it still had errors which Zondo had to fix.

So, finally, on Saturday October 22, Ramaphosa advised the Speaker of the National Assembly that he would be submitting his response to the recommendations of the commission.

These two dates, October 15 and 22, are the key to why there has been such frenetic activity over the past few weeks among those implicated in the state capture report.

The noose is now tightening around the necks of those who stole from the people in the period between 2009 and 2018. They are desperate and they are lashing out.

Chief among the desperate is Jacob Zuma, the man identified as the kingpin of state capture by the Zondo commission.

That is why, on Saturday, Zuma (who has miraculously recovered from whatever terminal illness he claimed he was dying from when he was released from jail last year) rushed to hold a media conference and tell us that he had always known he was the main target of the state capture commission.

Zuma said: “From the start of the commission it became clear to me that justice Zondo, as chair of the commission, was not interested in establishing the truth, but was himself involved in building up the narrative of the state capture.”

That is an extraordinary claim, if not an outright lie.

Zuma personally established the commission on 9 January 2018, saying in his statement that “the matter (of state capture) cannot wait any longer”.

Is he now saying that he consciously appointed a commission that he knew was biased against him?

Why didn ’ t he say a word about Zondo back in 2018?

In fact, on 7 June 2017 Zuma issued a statement saying he “has pleasure to announce the appointment of justice Ray Zondo as the deputy chief justice of the Republic of South Africa with immediate effect”.

So, in just seven months, Zuma

They are desperate and they are lashing out

elevated Zondo twice.

It is an odd way to treat someone you claim as an enemy. Yet, as we know, that is the Zuma strategy — besmirch, and besmirch again. The man has no facts and no integrity.

Zuma claimed that the commission’s final report took away the ANC’S ability to implement party policies in government by suggesting cadre deployment was unconstitutional.

Well, Zuma is the man who ensured that Themba Maseko — a capable and ethical ANC member — was fired as head of the Government Communications and Information System because he refused to “help” the Gupta family, which had Zuma in its pocket.

Zuma then appointed Jimmy Manyi, a Gupta associate, to the position. Manyi is now Zuma’s spokesperson.

This was not “cadre deployment”. It was “crony deployment ”— getting rid of ethical and capable ANC people for Zuma’s own puppets and “yes men”.

Not even Zuma’s praise singers believe his stories. Sitting next to Zuma on Saturday was his legal representative, Advocate Dali Mpofu, and Jacob G Zuma Foundation board chair Dudu Myeni, the former chair of the board of SA Airways.

Mpofu is the man who, on 13 April 2017, tweeted: “Ace Magashule says: ‘ Somlandela uzuma noma eyaphina somlandela’ (We shall follow Zuma wherever he goes). Good idea! Because Jacob Zuma is going to jail!”

Myeni is the woman who was declared a delinquent director by the high court in Pretoria two years ago over her misconduct at SAA.

In June this year, Myeni pleaded guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice for naming a protected witness at the Zondo commission and was ordered to pay a R120,000 fine, or face two years in prison.

In January, the Zondo commission said she acted with “corrupt intent” throughout her time at SAA. These are Zuma’s people.

Zuma said his imprisonment last year “came as part of a long campaign aimed at removing me as president and punishing me for having not been a darling of the commercial interests that seek to profit at the expense of our poor people”.

Nearly five years after his departure from office, he has proffered not an iota of evidence for this claim of a conspiracy.

It is worth noting that this is a man who conspired with the US consultancy Bain to destroy the SA Revenue Service. Are these the commercial interests he is talking about?

The noose is tightening around Zuma and his cronies’ necks. That is why they are squealing right and proper.