Protector sides with DA in court
OPPOSING ZUMA: CALL FOR STATE CAPTURE INQUIRY
President wants to delay probe until his application for review of report is heard.
If President Jacob Zuma was anxious to clear the air about state capture as he has told parliament, why didn’t he appoint a commission of inquiry as ordered by the former public protector, the Democratic Alliance asked yesterday in the High Court in Pretoria.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is siding with the DA in opposing Zuma’s bid to put the appointment of a commission of inquiry into state capture on ice.
The DA argued yesterday that Judge Motsamai Makume should order the president to immediately comply with the remedial action ordered by former public protector Thuli Madonsela in her November 2016 State of Capture report.
Anton Katz, for the DA, argued that if the court refused to delay the implementation of the commission pending the president’s review application, “dark secrets” might be revealed which could embarrass Zuma, but that did not mean he would be prejudiced.
Ishmael Semenya, for the president, said it had always been the president’s contention that the public protector’s remedial action was unconstitutional.
The remedial action was replete with constitutional and legal challenges that would be addressed when the president’s application to review the State of Capture report was heard in the High Court in Pretoria next month.
He added the Madonsela’s remedial action in the State of Capture report was “dictating of the worst kind”.
Hamilton Maenetje, for the public protector, echoed Katz’s legal argument that Zuma had not made a case for an interim interdict.
The pending review did not excuse the president from complying with his statutory duty to implement the public protector’s remedial action and did not render his review academic or vulnerable, he said.
Katz and Maenetje argued that the president’s only objection seemed to be that he could not appoint the judge to preside over the commission himself.
They stressed that he could not be judge and jury over himself, as he was implicated in the report.
Makume reserved judgment. –