Zuma hits your wallet ... again
COMMISSION: CHAIR MOVES FOR ORDER TO HAVE DEFIANT ZUMA JAILED
Commission of Inquiry into State Capture chair Raymond Zondo heads to the Constitutional Court for a jail order after Jacob Zuma’s no-show yesterday. The commission has cost taxpayers over R700m – and JZ’s latest antics will push it up.
Ex-president’s latest move will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of rands, say experts.
The gloves were off at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture yesterday, where Deputy Chief Justice and commission chair Raymond Zondo made it clear he was done playing nice with ex-president Jacob Zuma.
After yet another no-show for a scheduled appearance, Zondo announced he and his team were headed back to the Constitutional Court – only now, he said, they would be moving for an order to have the defiant Zuma jailed.
The commission has cost taxpayers more than R700 million since it was established and Zuma’s latest chicanery could push the figure up by hundreds of thousands of rands, with some senior counsel charging more than R100 000 a day to argue cases.
But, say analysts, going back to the country’s apex court is the right move.
“Any other route involves a lot of delaying tactics around reviews, etc. This gets the jurisdiction to deal with the defiance of Zuma in the right forum and in the right way,” Accountability Now’s Paul Hoffman said yesterday.
Hoffmann believed the commission had, up until now, treated Zuma with kid gloves, to an extent.
“But they’ve run out of space, time and runway,” he said.
Legal expert Professor Pierre de Vos said yesterday Zuma’s absence would hurt him more than the commission.
“In a criminal situation – where the protection offered to accused persons is much more stringent than in a commission – the court has said if you decide not to testify on your own behalf, adverse inferences can be drawn from this,” De Vos explained,
“And while this is not a criminal trial – and depending on how credible and cogent it believes the evidence against Zuma is – the commission is permitted to take his refusal to testify into account when weighing up that evidence.”
Zuma said in a statement last night Zondo had “decided to propagate some political propaganda against me”.
“Of course, he will get it,” Zuma said, referring to the contempt of court order Zondo would seek.
“I am not certain that ordinarily that is how contempt proceedings would commence, but I have accepted that Deputy Chief Justice Zondo and due process and the law are estranged.”
Zuma said it was “not our law that I defy, but a few lawless judges who have left their constitutional post for political expediency”.