Zuma ally urges capture report action
AN INFLUENTIAL ally of President Jacob Zuma, Sandile Zungu, has called on adversaries of former public protector Thuli Madonsela to promptly take her State of Capture report on judicial review or comply with its recommendations.
Zungu, a prominent businessman and Zuma’s adviser on black economic empowerment policy, said if judicial review failed, Madonsela’s report must be implemented unconditionally “because that is what the rule of law and constitutionalism suggest”.
“The state capture report warrants further interrogation because if it is left where it is – in an inconclusive state – a huge cloud will hang over our heads as South Africans and over our democracy.
“I think posterity will judge us very, very harshly, that we had an opportunity to get to the bottom of this issue, to deal with it unequivocally – if it doesn’t exist or if it is a figment of people’s imagination – or nip it in the bud if it is a reality,” he said.
The ANC and its youth league in the province have lashed out at Madonsela for releasing the report, which they described as incomplete and defamatory to Zuma. ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma accused Madonsela of releasing it to make a political statement.
Zungu said those aggrieved or implicated in the findings had a legal right to take it for a judicial review. “If they think the grounds for such a review are quite strong, they should not be blamed if they explore that,” he said.
The report recommended that Judge President Mogoeng Mogoeng, rather than Zuma, should appoint a suitable judge to lead the judicial inquiry into allegations of state capture.
“We can’t fault that, because the president tells you and tells us that the public protector’s findings enjoy certain status in law.”
Zungu said the issue of state capture should be of “great” concern, and if left unchecked would create an uncertain future. “The issue has become the newsmaker of the year, as it were. It is a phenomenon that should worry all of us,” he said.
Although he declined to discuss the friendship between Zuma and the Gupta family, he said the nation should be “damn worried if the relationship between individuals and families becomes so ‘creepy’ that it impugns the capacity of people to exercise their duty”.
He said Zuma’s friendship with the Guptas should be respected because anyone had a right to choose friends.
“Mandela once said ‘don’t choose friends for me, America, we will choose our friends’, and he identified (Fidel) Castro and Cuba as his friends. We respected that, and I think America grudgingly respected that.
“So if people choose their friends we should respect that. The only difficulty is if the capacity to act within the bounds of legality is impugned,” Zungu said.
He said attacks on Madonsela should be treated as mere political statements. He said most people, including her adversaries, privately appreciated “the strength that this woman represents”.
“Privately most people admire her for her steely determination and for her unwillingness to waiver from what she was employed to do,” he said.
“I really think she will go down in history as one of the most eminent personalities in South Africa of her era.”