Zondo Commission needs R90m

THE state capture commission of inquiry wants an additional R90 million to complete its work before its term ends in June.

Now, the Justice and Constitutional Department has approached the National Treasury to release the roll-over of funds from past years to fund the commission.

This was revealed by Justice and Constitutional Development directorgeneral Doctor Mashabane when he appeared before the justice and correctional services portfolio committee yesterday.

Mashabane was part of the department’s delegation that briefed the committee on their budget and performance plans for the 2021/22 financial year. The committee heard that the department’s budget has been cut from R23.8 billion to R21.5bn in this financial year.

This prompted ACDP MP Steve Swart to ask where funds would come from for the Zondo Commission to ensure it completed its work.

On Wednesday, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said they had found R75m with the National Treasury to help the commission towards the finalisation of its work. This was despite Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s assertion earlier this year that National Treasury would not be allocating additional funds.

Mashabane said the R75m is a deficit the commission incurred between January and March.

“We approached the Treasury and Treasury explained the challenges and the constraints they had because the budget process was finalised. The department was asked to scrape around and see if it can manage to find R75m to fund the deficit of January and March,” he said.

The term of the commission was extended from April to June after Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo obtained a court order. |