Zondo: Ramaphosa gets to face the fire
President Cyril Ramaphosa will finally face the tough questions about what he did or did not do when the Gupta brothers allegedly captured the state when he appears at the Zondo commission this week.
Ramaphosa will be wearing his party cap when he appears on Wednesday and Thursday, and will be expected to take the punches for both his personal role and that of his party in the alleged state capture project.
He will be back at the commission again next month in his capacity as state president. This week he will explain his party’s role, and what he did when he was deputy president of the ANC under Jacob Zuma.
Ramaphosa will also be expected to address his party’s decisions to defend alleged corruption and state capture during the Zuma years.
The commission will also seek to get Ramaphosa’s view on the ANC’s spirited defence of the scandal-prone Zuma when he was president, mainly in the motions of noconfidence that were moved against him.
On this score, Ramaphosa will most likely maintain the party line set by ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe during his appearance before the commission.
In his testimony last week, Mantashe said the ANC had shielded Zuma because it was in the best interests of the ANC. Ramaphosa is unlikely to contradict this.
The commission will also seek Ramaphosa’s view on the ANC’s inaction over allegations of the Guptas’ hold on Zuma and his political allies in the party.
Ramaphosa could respond that ANC officials had called Zuma to order when he sacked Pravin Gordhan as finance minister in 2017. Ramaphosa was among the ANC officials who spoke out publicly against Zuma at the time.
It is likely Ramaphosa will be pushed on why it took ANC officials so long to get the courage to speak out when allegations of outside influence on Zuma’s decisions had been in the public domain for years.
The president will be cornered in his defence of the ANC with the fact that the party had rejected a motion by the DA in parliament in 2016 for an inquiry into the influence the Gupta family had in government.
Ramaphosa will also be questioned on the current state of affairs in the ANC and whether or not the party, under his leadership, has done anything to ensure an end is put to the impunity that characterised the leadership of his predecessor.
The watershed Nasrec conference in 2017, where Ramaphosa was elected ANC president, may also be visited by the commission, particularly the controversy surrounding his campaign funding.
This will be Ramaphosa’s opportunity to deal decisively with the funding issue, which remains a weapon in the hands of his detractors.