Zuma dodging accountability once again

JACOB Zuma’s latest chess move, seeking a medical exemption from giving evidence at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry Into Allegations of State Capture, tells us what we already suspected.

South Africa’s former president has little interest in answering critical questions over his role in large-scale corruption that eroded the effectiveness of South African state institutions.

Yesterday, Zuma’s legal counsel advocate Thabani Masuku SC told the commission that the former president’s medical doctor was willing to meet with commission chairperson Deputy Judge President Raymond Zondo to give more information on the 77-year-old’s health.

Instead of giving evidence, Zuma will be jetting overseas to get medical treatment. Previously, he had claimed that ill health prevented him from returning to the commission in November after his appearance there in July last year, where he was evasive and spun conspiracy theories.

He returned from Cuba, where he had received medical treatment, before the December holidays, and even made a much-publicised trip to a branch of Capitec Bank with the much-maligned former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni – herself no stranger to coming up with excuses to dodge accountability.

Zuma is possibly hoping that kicking the ball into touch, continuously, gives him a last-gap opportunity to score a victory despite previous attempts at escaping accountability coming to nought.

In October, the Pietermaritzburg High Court dismissed his application for a stay of prosecution in the fraud and corruption case against him, which stems from the Arms Deal.

With the path to an escape narrowing each day, Zuma’s only hope of escaping accountability is through political machinations.

Like the pressure being brought on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, expect Zuma’s supporters to call for a “political solution” to resolve his legal matters.

Under the current dispensation that would be nearly impossible, and would immediately doom Ramaphosa’s legacy.

While the notion of South African exceptionalism has long been proven false, our failure to deal decisively with corruption will further eviscerate our country’s already tattered reputation.