Zondo to fix mistakes in state capture report

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has been given the green light to make slight amendments to the report into state capture.

Zondo, who chaired the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, approached the High Court in Pretoria in August seeking approval to fix mistakes in the report, which included numerous grammatical errors and wrong figures.

The court granted him permission to make the changes, according to TimesLIVE.

In a judgment delivered by Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba on Wednesday, the court ruled that corrected versions of two volumes of the report may be delivered to President Cyril Ramaphosa. This must be done by next Monday.

Zondo has also been given permission to add an analysis of the evidence of two witnesses, which was unintentionally left out.

At the time he went to court, Zondo insisted the corrections would prejudice nobody and they would be in the public interest, adding that the mistakes were due to exhaustion.

The Citizen previously reported that the commission – which spent more than R1 billion – has collected over 100 000 pages in submissions from more than 300 witnesses since it began its work in 2018.

Last month, Ramaphosa told MPs the “political will” was there to deliver the final report to parliament on time.

He has to submit the report on 22 October and present an action plan for implementation of the report’s 358 recommendations.

“We are looking to see how it touches on our own implementation deadlines, [but] the implementation plan is being finalised. The political will is there,” he said during a Q&A session on 29 September.

“When we bring the implementation plan to parliament, that is when the will of the government will become clear that we are serious and we have the will to do so.”

Ramaphosa said the plan would indicate which recommendations have been prioritised for implementation. “The work that is currently underway, to consider these recommendations, does not mean we have been waiting for the tabling of this response plan to start the process of implementation of recommendations...”

Meanwhile, parliament has begun establishing “appropriate systems” to process and oversee the implementation of Zondo’s recommendations.

The joint ethics committee was in May directed to investigate possible contraventions of the parliamentary code of conduct during the state capture era.

This applies to current members, who were serving in parliament when any alleged transgressions took place.