Ramaphosa submits part 4 of Zondo report to parly

President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday submitted part four of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture’s report to parliament.

This was revealed during the National Assembly’s programming committee meeting.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli told MPs during the virtual meeting that Ramaphosa sent a letter informing parliament on the matter, having already submitted part three of the report.

“The administration, including legal services, is going through the report in order to identify matters that may need consideration by relevant structures of parliament,” he said.

Ramaphosa’s handover comes as parliament began establishing “appropriate systems” to process and oversee the implementation of the state capture reports.

The joint committee on ethics and members’ interests has been tasked to investigate possible contraventions of the Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interest for the National Assembly and members of the National Council of Provinces.

“Parliament’s research department is currently processing the reports, summarising them into, amongst others, action plans to improve parliament’s execution of its constitutional mandate, consistent with the corrective measures contained in the reports,” parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said on Tuesday.

Mothapo said parliament had an obligation to implement corrective measures from the commission’s reports with regard to areas where it had a role to play.

“Similarly, parliament has a responsibility to oversee the executive’s and state agencies’ actions in their process of carrying out the implementation of commission reports,” he said.

“The rules committee will, at an opportune time, consider how best to process the reports and implementation plan in their entirety.”

Meanwhile, Tsenoli clarified that Ramaphosa would not submit all outstanding reports, along with the implementation plan, in August as previously announced.

This comes after the commission, chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, was granted another extension until 15 June to complete its work.

It was the 18th extension granted to the commission. The previous extension was granted this year until 30 April.

The latest extension means Ramaphosa has about four months to table a plan in parliament on how he will deal with the commission’s recommendations upon receipt of the final report.

The president now has until October to do so.

Part three of the commission’s report dealt with the conduct of current and former MPs implicated in allegations of state capture as well as Bosasa, among others.

The fourth volume included findings on Eskom, National Treasury, the Free State asbestos project and a R1 billion housing project.