Zuma expected to lay complaint against justice Zondo next week
Former president Jacob Zuma’s legal team is expected to lay a complaint against chief justice Raymond Zondo and file a review application challenging the final state capture report next week.
Spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi, confirmed that this was the plan. “We hope that it will be launched next week as promised,” said Manyi.
Zuma’s lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu, was not immediately available for comment.
The Sunday Times reported the former president threatened to throw the book at the commission on state capture, saying he would take the report on judicial review and report Zondo to the Judicial Service Commission for misconduct.
Zuma made the threats through Manyi after the release of Zondo’s final report last week. The report found Zuma was at the centre of a vast conspiracy to capture the state for the benefit of the Gupta brothers and ministers and officials who stood to benefit.
While Manyi struck a defiant tone consistent with Zuma’s refusal to acknowledge the commission’s work and its findings, President Cyril Ramaphosa reflected on the work of the Zondo commission and pronounced SA ready to move beyond the era of state capture.
On Saturday, Manyi said Zuma had instructed his legal team, led by Mpofu, to take Zondo’s final state capture report on review.
“The parts that are being taken on review are the parts that refer to him but ... he is saying that these are fruits of a poisoned tree, he is saying the whole thing is rotten, unlawful, and the whole thing was wrong from the start. It violated the constitution,” said Manyi.
Zuma, who was billed to be present at the briefing addressed by Manyi, was a noshow after being advised by Mpofu that his attendance may cause a “hullabaloo” and could breach one of the conditions of his medical parole.
The threats to challenge the report are last-ditch attempts by Zuma to try to absolve himself of the crimes allegedly committed by the Guptas.
The National Prosecuting Authority is in the process of trying to have Rajesh and Atul Gupta, who have been arrested in Dubai, extradited to SA.
We hope that it will be launched next week as promised