Setting the record straight on Zondo story
IN ITS edition of Monday, February 7, The Star newspaper published an article in its front page titled:
“I never met Zuma”
“I cannot remember”
“I did meet Zuma”
The suggestion was that this is what the Acting Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo, said, which is not true.
In that article it was said that the acting chief justice had previously denied that he had met with Mr Jacob Zuma but had admitted in the JSC interview on Friday, February 4, that he had met with Mr Zuma previously.
The article was based on a statement made by Dr Kuhle Zwakala, an analyst attached to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, who is quoted in the article as having said that the acting chief justice had previously denied having met Mr Zuma, but that in the JSC interview he had admitted that he had met Mr Zuma.
From what follows it will be seen that Dr Zwakala spoke without checking his facts, which is completely unacceptable for someone in his position.
The acting chief justice wishes to point out that the journalists who wrote the article, Siphokazi Vuso and Mashudu Sadike, used a false heading to the article that had no factual basis.
For reasons best known to them, they and their editor decided not to afford the acting chief justice an opportunity to comment on the allegation before the article could be published.
They also failed to conduct basic research that journalists are obliged to undertake before they publish a story. As an analyst, Dr Zwakala was also obliged to conduct basic research before he could suggest in a newspaper that the acting chief justice had previously denied meeting Mr Zuma, but Dr Zwakala chose to speak to the newspaper without conducting any research to establish the facts.
The acting chief justice points out that as long ago as November 16, 2020, he had disclosed that he had previously met with Mr Zuma. He did this by way of a statement he read into the record of the proceedings of the commission on that day.
The statement was made available to the media on the same day. That statement should have been easily available to Dr Kuhle Zwakala, Siphokazi Vuso and Mashudu Sadike if they had undertaken the most basic research.
If they and the editor of The Star had afforded the acting chief justice the opportunity to comment on the allegation before the article was published, they would have realised that Justice Zondo had never denied having met with Mr Zuma on a limited number of occasions.
PROFESSOR ITUMELENG MOSALA | Issued by the Secretary of the Commission at the instance of the Chairperson