Zuma could out his accusers at inquiry

Five days have been set aside for former president, but it is unlikely he will answer any questions

Former president Jacob Zuma, who has been central to allegations of state capture, will address the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture when he appears on Monday, and he could name those he accuses of using the platform to discredit him.

Zuma’s attorney, Daniel Mantsha, would not say what Zuma will do when he takes to the witness stand.

“All I can confirm is that he’ll be there,” said Mantsha.

It is understood that Zuma’s lawyers have not been communicating with the inquiry since he agreed to appear before it. He has also not prepared a statement detailing his responses to the evidence against him, meaning that those he may implicate have not received the normal notice given to implicated parties.

Zuma’s advocate, Muzi Sikhakhane, is expected to address commission chair, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, to express his client’s unhappiness about what he said was the nonprocedural way Zuma was “invited” to testify. Zuma’s lawyers have repeatedly expressed unhappiness about his not having been called to testify under any of the commission’s rules and his not being provided with the questions he will face — to which the inquiry contends he is not entitled.

After Sikhakhane’s address, the commission will have to decide whether it will continue with Zuma’s evidence.

Five days have been set aside by the commission for Zuma, but despite him addressing the inquiry it is thought unlikely that the former president is going to answer any questions.

Zuma has already made it clear on many occasions that he does not believe there was such a thing as state capture and that the inquiry is politicised — the same argument that he has been making in his corruption case.

Zuma has already suggested that he believes the commission is being “controlled” by shadowy forces, which he has yet to name. Those suspicions appear to extend to Zondo himself.

The former president has also said that he is of the belief

that he has not been implicated in testimony already given at the commission. This was despite witnesses such as former Government Communication and Information System head Themba Maseko, former ministers Barbara Hogan, Nhlanhla Nene, Ngoako Ramatlhodi and Pravin Gordhan, as well as former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor and former Ramatlhodi adviser Mahlodi Muofhe, implicating him directly or indirectly.

As with the court case against him — in which he faces charges of corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering in relation to the multibillion rand arms deal — Zuma’s supporters are expected to arrive in numbers to support him on Monday. They are expected to congregate in Johannesburg’s Pieter Roos Park, across the road from the inquiry venue.

Security has been beefed up ahead of Zuma’s appearance.

Zuma will in all probability address his supporters after his appearance. This is when he usually feels he can speak freely and is likely to try to discredit the commission and ask the same old question: “What have I done wrong?”

Zuma has not been subpoenaed to appear before Zondo. If he refuses to answer any questions, the deputy chief justice might be forced to eventually compel Zuma to appear again and answer. These powers have been given to the commission in its terms of reference. Zuma’s stance on the commission has been likened to the “Stalingrad tactic” he has used in his corruption case.

This was a term used by his former advocate Kemp J Kemp to describe how the former president intended to fight his prosecution “in every room, in every street, in every house”.

It has taken more than a decade to get him to face charges related to the arms deal.

If the commission wants to prevent the same thing from happening, it will have to play hard ball with Zuma and eventually subpoena and force him to answer questions, but it is not likely that this will be happening this week.